A Survey of Social Difficulties in Adults with ADHD and their Relationship to Symptom Severity and Quality of Life

Sammanfattning: The aims of this study were to survey a sample of Swedish adults with self-reported ADHD and to investigate: 1) the extent of their reported impairments in social functioning and the relationship between these and the severity of their ADHD symptoms, comorbid symptoms of anxiety and depression, psychological flexibility and ADHD-specific quality of life (QoL); 2) investigate whether the participants had ever been offered treatment involving social skills training and whether they think they would benefit from such treatment; and 3) the extent to which the participant’s QoL was impacted by social impairments. A total of 273 adults (aged 18-73 years) answered an online survey posted on ADHD -interest groups on Facebook. The survey included questions designed by the author/supervisor to assess social impairments and standardized measures of ADHD, anxiety, depression, ADHD-specific QoL, and psychological inflexibility. The results of the survey indicated that participants tended to agree more than disagree on experiencing social impairments as a result of their ADHD, and the extent of these impairments was significantly correlated with their levels of ADHD, anxiety, depression, QoL and psychological inflexibility. The social skills impairment significantly contributed to the variance in QoL even after controlling for the other variables. Of note, very few participants reported receiving any kind of treatment involving social skills training but the majority thought that such treatment would have be helpful and want such treatments. The social interactions of adults with ADHD suffer from as a result of these symptoms, which in turn is related to their overall quality of life. Treatments addressing this form of impairment in this population warrant investigation.