This was a narrative review of studies on girls and women with ADHD. It did not collect new data of its own. Instead the authors pulled together earlier work, including the Berkeley Girls with ADHD Longitudinal Study (BGALS), a Massachusetts General Hospital sample of 140 girls, and U.S. national parent-report surveys.
The authors say girls and women with ADHD have been left out of much of the research. In childhood, girls are diagnosed at just under half the rate of boys, and boys are reported to have ADHD about 2 to 2.5 times as often. National parent reports showed roughly two boys for every girl (2.3:1). That gap narrows toward equal by adulthood.
Girls and women tended to show more inattention and more inward-facing problems, while boys and men showed more hyperactive and impulsive behavior. How large these differences look depended a lot on whether the sample came from a clinic or the wider community.
By early adulthood in BGALS, women whose childhood ADHD combined inattention and hyperactivity had high rates of attempted suicide (22%) and moderate-to-severe self-injury (51%), well above comparison women (6% and 19%). As a non-systematic review, it combined very different studies, and female subgroups were often too small to be sure. If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or self-harm, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, any time.
Source: Hinshaw S, Nguyen P, O’Grady S, et al.. Annual Research Review: Attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder in girls and women: underrepresentation, longitudinal processes, and key directions. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (2021). doi:10.1111/jcpp.13480