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. 2020 Jan;24(2):215-225.
doi: 10.1177/1087054719866255. Epub 2019 Oct 18.

Pharmacotherapy of ADHD in Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Effectiveness and Side Effects

J J Muit  1 , N Bothof  2 , C C Kan  1
Affiliations

Pharmacotherapy of ADHD in Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Effectiveness and Side Effects

J J Muit et al. J Atten Disord. 2020 Jan.

Abstract

Objective: Symptoms of ADHD are expected to be more difficult to treat in patients with a combination of ADHD and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as opposed to only ADHD. Little evidence is available on the influence of ASD on the effects of pharmacotherapy in adults with ADHD. This study addresses this gap. Method: 60 adults with ADHD and comorbid ASD were selected from an outpatient clinic and compared with 226 adults from the same clinic with only ADHD. Similar treatment regimens were received. Results: Significant decreases in symptoms of ADHD were found in both groups. A diagnosis of ASD did not affect the reduction in symptoms of ADHD. No significant group differences in side effects or vital signs were found. Conclusion: Results show that medication for ADHD can effectively and safely be prescribed to patients with ADHD and comorbid ASD. Suggestions for future research are discussed.

Keywords: ADHD; adult ADHD treatment; autism spectrum disorders; comorbidity; pharmacotherapy.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Patient selection process. Note. ASD = autism spectrum disorder.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Mean relative difference for the ADHD symptom index at T1 and T2. Mean reduction of 24.6% in the ADHD plus ASD group and 31.3% in the ADHD-only group. Note. ASD = autism spectrum disorder; CI = confidence interval.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Mean absolute difference between T1 and T2 side-effect scores within groups for 20 individual items. Note. See Table 2 for side effects corresponding to the numbers on horizontal axis. ASD = autism spectrum disorder.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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