Researchers at the University of Edinburgh think they’ve found a reason why teenagers with ADHD are likely to struggle with anxiety and depression, too.
Published in the Journal of Attention Disorders earlier this month, the study is being billed by the university as “the first to study a wide range of factors which link ADHD symptoms and mental ill health symptoms over time.”
The study lays out the case that young people who have ADHD are also more likely to have issues like anxiety and low mood at least in part because ADHD raises their chances of having poor self-esteem, as well as a parent with poor mental health.
Aja Murray, who led the study and is a professor of developmental psychology at the University of Edinburgh, said it is important to recognize that “internalizing problems like anxiety and depression are elevated for young people with ADHD symptoms.”
“There’s lots of things that might contribute to that link between ADHD symptoms and anxiety and depression,” she said. “It’s quite good to understand what are some of the biggest things that we should be focusing on to have the most impact.”
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh tested more than 5,000 adolescents aged 11, 14 and 17 for potential factors that link ADHD and other aspects of mental health, such as behaviour issues, low self-esteem and whether a person’s parent had mental health challenges.
They found a “small but statistically significant link” between those who have low self-esteem and a parent with mental health challenges, and those with ADHD and risks of poor mental health. That was also true in girls for those who also have difficulties with their peers.
“The results suggest that several different factors may be working collectively with a small effect to connect ADHD and other emotional issues during adolescence,” researchers said.
“The study could help in tailoring targeted wellbeing support systems for young people with ADHD.”
Cara Katz, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and assistant professor with the department of psychiatry at the University of Manitoba, said she understands the link.
“It’s a really important developmental period with identity formation,” she said.
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“Kids learn that they’re perceived by their environment is really important and when kids or people have ADHD sometimes, they get more negative feedback from their environment … so then they take in kind of how their environment perceives them and internalize that.”
The study’s findings can help shed light on how to provide better support for teens with ADHD, experts say.
“I think that kids who have ADHD symptoms, they are commonly being told or they think that they’re bad kids because they’re getting in trouble a lot at school, at home. Their peers often don’t like them. They’re often told, ‘You need to try harder; you’re not applying yourself. You need to listen,’” said Amori Mikami, psychology professor at the University of British Columbia.
“So I feel like over time, that can really take its toll.“
The study also states that ADHD symptoms “slightly increased” by age 17, something that Jeremy Williams, CEO of ADHD Counselling Canada, said can happen.
“Adolescence brings a dramatic increase in complexity, academically, socially, and emotionally which can make ADHD symptoms more visible. Teens are also navigating highly stimulating digital environments filled with constant notifications, social media, and online engagement that compete for attention,” he said in a written statement to Global News.
“For young people already predisposed to attentional challenges that environment can magnify symptoms. Increased awareness and willingness to report struggles may also contribute to the trend.”
The study also suggests that the results “are consistent with the idea that whole family system interventions may be an optimal approach for families with members experiencing ADHD symptoms.”
Katz said that “child and adolescence mental health is all about the family system.”
“Parents need to be involved, you do need to know how the parents are kind of the main contributors to intervention, like in the home and in structure and in the interface between school and home, parents are really important.”
Murray highlighted that there was a difference in results between the surveyed girls and boys, saying that “girls that have got higher ADHD symptoms seem to show more difficulties with their peers, which then in turn seem to lead to anxiety and depression later on in adolescence.”
These results were “quite interesting” to Murray, who said that “it suggests that when we are trying to support boys and girls with ADHD, we need to gender tailor the support that’s provided.”
“When we’re thinking about what kind of support girls with ADHD symptoms might need and paying particular attention to how that is impacting their friendships and their ability to get on with their peers is quite important. For boys, I feel like the gender-specific results were a bit less clear,” she said.
“It seemed to show some indications that that was a lot to do with risk-taking behaviours. So maybe that’s an area that they need a bit more support with to prevent the development of anxiety and depression.”
Mikami believes that the survey suggests that “those mediators are more driven by what’s going on for the girls in the sample than what’s going on for boys.”
“There’s lot of gendered behaviours and expectations in our society. And we know that in childhood, the ADHD-type problems are more common in boys, but then in adolescents, the internalizing type problems are more common in girls,” she said.
“I think maybe that a girl who’s showing the ADHD type symptoms, the inattention, the hyperactivity, can’t sit still, blurting out answers, interrupting and intruding. That probably stands out more than boys who are doing that.”
A December 2025 JAMA Network open study evaluated all prescription rates for ADHD for adults in Ontario, finding that “by 2023, data shows overall annual new stimulant prescriptions were up by 157 per cent compared to 2015.”
The report also states that “prescriptions for ADHD treatment rose throughout the study period and accelerated in 2020, coinciding with the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic. That year prescriptions started increasing 28 per cent per year, compared to only seven per cent from 2015 to 2019.”