Myth #4:
ADHD affects only boys.
- Indeed, four to five times more boys than girls are referred for ADHD evaluations because their symptoms are easier to spot, according to Kathleen G. Nadeau, PhD, director of Chesapeake Psychological Services in Silver Spring, Md. Boys, she says, tend to pose more problems for their teachers and may appear more hyperactive. Girls with ADHD (or ADD, as it is called when there is no hyperactivity issue) are less rebellious and tend to be inattentive. As a result, she says, many girls with undiagnosed ADHD are dismissed as lazy or spacey, when in fact they simply may not be getting the help they need.
- "They are so good at hiding it, disguising it, and compensating for it, a lot of parents and teachers don't know what is going on," Nadeau tells WebMD.
- The disorder has been considered two to three times more common in boys than girls, but many believe the numbers are skewed. "It's much closer to one to one," says Peter Jaksa, PhD, president of the National Attention Deficit Disorder Association, and a psychologist with a private practice in suburban Chicago. "But girls have always been underdiagnosed because they are harder to spot."
- Girls are just as likely to have ADHD as are boys, and gender makes no difference in the symptoms caused by the disorder. But because this myth persists, boys are more likely to be diagnosed than girls.