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Does attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder medication reduce entrepreneurship?

ABSTRACT: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a highly inheritable condition with a rather stable prevalence over time and geography, and it is associated with a broad range of negative life outcomes. Increasing knowledge on the condition has led to a growing trend of dampening ADHD symptoms through medication. Although this development has led to many positive outcomes, the broader societal implications are still poorly understood. In particular, person-level studies suggest that ADHD-like behavior may possess some advantages for engaging in entrepreneurship and the initiation of new businesses, which is considered a key activity for economic development. Using recent panel data from 11 countries and one special administrative region (SAR), we investigate if the increasing use of ADHD medication in adults is associated with an unintended outcome of reducing entrepreneurship. We find that a roughly one unit increase in the prevalence of adult ADHD medication is associated with a one unit decrease in limited liability company registrations per working age population. In practical terms, the effect of a one within-country/SAR standard deviation increase of adult ADHD medication prevalence corresponds to a decrease in new business formation of 20% of its mean in the sample.

SUBMITTER: Peltonen J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7496259 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Does attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder medication reduce entrepreneurship?

Peltonen Juhana J Johansson Edvard E Wincent Joakim J

Health economics 20200622 9

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a highly inheritable condition with a rather stable prevalence over time and geography, and it is associated with a broad range of negative life outcomes. Increasing knowledge on the condition has led to a growing trend of dampening ADHD symptoms through medication. Although this development has led to many positive outcomes, the broader societal implications are still poorly understood. In particular, person-level studies suggest that ADHD-like ...[more]

PMID: 32567214

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Project description:Objectives: To investigate child and parental characteristics of medication use for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Methods: Participants were part of the prospective population-based Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort study (MoBa) (n = 114,500 children, 95,000 mothers, and 75,000 fathers). This cohort was linked to the Norwegian Prescription Database (NorPD) and the Norwegian Patient Registry (NPR) to compare child and parental characteristics in children medicated and not medicated for ADHD during years 2008-2013. Results: One thousand seven hundred and sixty-four children (74% boys) with ADHD (International Classification of Diseases [ICD-10]: F90 and F98.8) were identified. One thousand three hundred and sixty-two (77%) used medication. Boys and girls did not differ in the use of ADHD medication (both 77%). Mean age at first prescription was 9 years in both boys and girls, and age at ADHD diagnosis was 8 years in medicated and unmedicated children. Significantly more hyperkinetic conduct disorders (F90.1), and significantly fewer with attention-deficit disorder (F98.8) were found among the medicated children compared to the unmedicated children. The medicated children also had a significantly lower global functioning (Child Global Assessment Scale). Child disruptive symptoms reported in the MoBa child age 3 year questionnaire were significantly higher in children who used medication compared to the nonusers (t = 2.2, p = 0.03), and group differences in ADHD symptoms at age 3 years were close to significant (t = 1.8, p = 0.07). Other preschool child and parental characteristics were not significantly different in the two groups. Conclusion: In this large birth cohort study, where a great majority of children with ADHD used medication, only child characteristics were significantly associated with the use of medication. We could not replicate previous findings suggesting that "environmental factors," such as parental education and psychopathology, drive medication use. The small differences between medicated and unmedicated children in this cohort study, where a majority used medication, might be due to strong established clinical practices where medication is offered as a treatment option, particularly for hyperkinetic conduct disorder in an egalitarian high-income society.

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Does attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder medication reduce entrepreneurship?

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Does attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder medication reduce entrepreneurship?

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