Summary: The benefits of ADHD medication for adults include improved function and cognitive ability across several life domains, including work, school, and relationships. New studies show additional benefits related to long term health and safety.
Key Points:
Receiving a prescription for and adhering to a treatment plan with ADHD medication is associated with:
- Improved focus/concentration/executive function
- Reduced impulsivity/hyperactivity
- Improved work and academic functioning
- Improved peer and family relationships
- Long-term reduction in various types of injuries/accidents
ADHD and Adults: It’s Not Just Kids and Teens
When we think about attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), most of us think about children who have a hard time sitting still in class and/or following directions, or teens who have a hard time focusing on an entire lecture and/or following through on the required homework or test preparation.
In recent years, however, diagnosis of ADHD in people over age 18 – i.e. in adults – has increased significantly. Signs of ADHD in adults include:
- Procrastination
- Missing details at work or home
- Problems staying focused on a single task
- Difficulty following through/completing tasks
- Difficulty listening for more than a short time
- Problems with personal and professional organization
- Problems with memory/forgetting things
Adults with ADHD might also show the classic signs of ADHD associated with children and/or teens, including:
- Restlessness
- Fidgeting
- Inability to sit still/wait in line/be patient
- Interrupting others
- Excessive talking
When an adult shows the signs and symptoms above, and a full psychiatric evaluation rules out other possible causes – extreme stress, a different mental health/behavioral disorder, substance misuse – they may receive a prescription for a first-line, stimulant ADHD medication, such as:
- Methylphenidate: Ritalin, Concerta, and others
- Amphetamine: Adderall, Vyvanse, and others
Those medications, in combination with therapy, coaching, and various auxiliary or complementary supports can help adults with mild, moderate, or severe ADHD manage their symptoms and reduce the amount of problems and disruption they cause in their lives.
But those aren’t all the benefits of ADHD medication for adults. A new study shows a host of unexpected benefits associated with prescription medication for ADHD. We’ll share data from that study in a moment. First, we’ll review the latest statistics on adult ADHD.
Adult ADHD: Facts and Figures
The following data on adult ADHD is available to the public in this Centers for Disease Control (CDC) publication from 2024.
U.S. Adults and ADHD: The Latest Prevalence Data
- Diagnosis:
- 15 million, or about 6% of adults
- Diagnosis (age):
- Close to 60% diagnosed after 18
- Close to 45% diagnosed before 18
Now let’s look at the data on treatment, provided by the same publication:
U.S. Adults and ADHD: The Latest Treatment Data
- Any treatment for ADHD:
- 65% received treatment at some point
- 35% received medication and therapy/counseling at some point
- Treatment for ADHD in past 12 months:
- Received prescription for stimulant medication: 50%
- Took stimulant medication: 33%
Studies also reveal another phenomenon: a large increase in prescriptions for ADHD medication written by physicians over the past 20 years. Data shows the following:
- From pooled data for 64 countries, 2015-2019:
- 10% increase
- From a long-range study in Sweden:
- 400% increase among patients under age 18
- 900% increase among adults over age 18
- From a long-range study in the U.S., 2006-2016:
- 153% increase in total medication prescribed
That’s the latest data we have on prevalence of ADHD diagnosis and treatment among adults. As the numbers show, millions of adults have ADHD, and millions of adults receive prescriptions for and take stimulant ADHD medication.
Unexpected Benefits of ADHD Medication for Adults
A new study published in Sweden in 2025 – see the research here – examined the health records of close to a quarter million people with ADHD who received a prescription for stimulant ADHD medication. With data from the Swedish National Patient Register, researchers examined outcomes that most studies on ADHD don’t.
Rather than looking at outcomes that have been verified repeatedly over the past 40 years, such as improved concentration and executive function, their goal was to identify the impact of ADHD on the following outcomes:
- Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI)
- Injuries from unintentional accidents
- Automobile accidents
- Criminal behavior
The study sample – i.e. the individuals/records they examined – included patients between the ages of 4 and 64 who took stimulant ADHD medication between 2006 and 2020. For clarity and perspective, the research team focused on three separate time blocks: 2006-2010, 2011-2015, and 2016-2020. Between 2006 and 2020, prescriptions for ADHD medication in Sweden increased by over 350 percent, from 0.8 percent of the population to 2.8 percent of the population: that’s one of the primary reasons the research team designed and conducted the study.
Here’s how they describe this research effort:
“While the rising trends in ADHD diagnoses and medication prescriptions are well recognized, this is the first study to examine how these changes influence the associations of ADHD medication and serious real-world outcomes over time.”
And here’s what they found:
Benefits of ADHD Medication for Adults: Decreased Risk Associated with ADHD Medication
Reported as Percent (%) Reduction in Risk
Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI):
- 2006-2010: 21%
- 2011-2015: 5%
- 2016-2020: 20%
Injuries from unintentional accidents:
- 2006-2010: 12%
- 2011-2015: 8%
- 2016-2020: 6%
Automobile Accidents:
- 2006-2010: 26%
- 2011-2015: 17%
- 2016-2020: 12%
Criminal Behavior:
- 2006-2010: 25%
- 2011-2015: 20%
- 2016-2020: 23%
These figures show clear benefits of ADHD medication for adults across all four areas of interest. As we can see, the strength of reductions gradually decreased over time, as both rates of diagnosis and prescriptions increased.
We’ll discuss that in the final section of this article, and we’ll discuss other aspects of these outcomes directly below.
Real-World Outcomes: Reduced NSSI, Reduced Accidents, Decreased Criminality
This research covers ground most adults who seek support for ADHD don’t consider.
The majority of adults seeking treatment for ADHD aren’t thinking about car accidents, unintentional injuries, criminality, NSSI, or suicidality. They want to understand why they procrastinate, why they have a hard time concentrating, why they find it difficult to follow through on projects at work and at home.
They want to find help managing their daily lives while managing the symptoms of ADHD.
We’ll be clear. ADHD treatment delivered by an experienced mental or behavioral health clinician cn help and adult patient accomplish all of those goals.
A treatment program for adult ADHD typically includes:
- Prescription medication:
- Stimulant or non-stimulant medication
For an excellent resource about ADHD medication for adults, click here.
- Therapy and/or counseling:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
- Mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral therapy (MBCBT)
- Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)
To lern morer about how therapy helps adults with ADHD, click here.
- Organizational skills coaching:
For an overview on how skills coaching helps adults with ADHD, click here.
A treatment plan at a high-quality treatment center may also include peer support, nutrition and exercise counseling/classes, family involvement in therapy, relationship support, and educational workshops on the neurobiology of ADHD and the science behind ADHD treatment.
To learn about ADHD treatment at BACA, please visit our treatment page:
ADHD Treatment
How This Research Helps
We’ll circle back to the results for a moment.
As the rate and number of diagnoses and prescriptions increased, the strength of the association between ADHD medication and the real word outcomes examined in this study gradually decreased. The researchers suggest that as stigma around ADHD decreased and treatment became normalized – particularly for adult ADHD – people with less severe forms of ADHD stepped forward for evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment.
It follows that those with less severe forms of ADHD would, by the nature of their condition, experience fewer instances of NSSI, unintentional injuries, and car accidents than those with more severe forms of ADHD. In other words, this new group of people diagnosed with ADHD may have had fewer initial symptoms and less significant impairment, which explains the declining magnitude of associations in rea world outcomes.
As the number of negative outcomes decreased relative the number of people with ADHD, the statistical strength of the associations dipped: for example, the percent improvement in unintentional injuries decreased from 12 percent to 8 percent to 6 percent, and which is well-explained by the overall increase in ADHD diagnosis and prescription over the same sixteen-year period.
Overall, this research helps us understand the changing contours of the ADHD treatment population, and can guide our treatment efforts toward a more individualized, tailored approach for each patient, and a more comprehensive, holistic view of the needs and goals of adult ADHD patients.
We’ll close with the final conclusions offered by the research team:
“Our findings are consistent with previous population-based studies that have demonstrated protective associations of ADHD medication on these downstream consequences of ADHD symptoms. Even though the magnitude of associations between ADHD medication use and risk of these more distal outcomes appears to decrease as the rates of prescription increase, there are still clear benefits associated with ADHD medication use.”
Resources for Adult ADHD
We encourage adults with ADHD to learn more about ADHD at this website:
Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD)
In addition, the CDC resources on ADHD – while child and teen focused – are an excellent resource for learning more about ADHD:
