A number of recently-published studies have shown that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a risk factor for contracting the coronavirus. During the first wave in Israel, Dr. Yvgeny Marzon of Leumit Health Services conducted a study that found that untreated ADHD sufferers are at 68% higher risk of being infected than non-ADHD people. Researchers think that the correlation has to do with the fact that non-treated ADHD sufferers find it difficult to maintain social distancing and handle the restrictions of a lockdown.
Researchers also found that ADHD made it difficult for people to wear masks for any length of time and tend to touch their faces more frequently than people usually do, both of which increase the likelihood of contracting the virus.
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But now findings from another group of researchers who probed proposed links between ADHD and COVID contradict these studies.
Dr. Yuval Arbel of Western Galilee College, Dr. Chaim Fialkoff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Dr. Amichai Kerner of Netanya Academic College and Dr. Miryam Kerner of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology looked at the prevalence of ADHD in adults in 54 areas in the United States and compared it to the COVID morbidity, recovery, and mortality rates in those areas as of August 2020.
In work published in the Journal of Attention Disorders, the research team reveals that despite the earlier studies that defined ADHD as a risk factor for COVID, there were no links between ADHD and morbidity or mortality from COVID in any US state. Recovery from the virus, however, appears to be a different matter: the team found that COVID patients were more likely to recover in states where ADHD is relatively common, or at least more frequently diagnosed.
The researchers proposed an explanation for the apparent link between ADHD and recovery from COVID – that ADHD might provide an evolutionary "edge."
"Our hypothesis is that people who deal with ADHD have certain natural advantages in fighting COVID-19 and recovering from it," Arbel explained.
"The study indicates a surprising statistical link on the state level that should be examined in greater depth in order to bring genetic or physiological explanations to light," Fialkoff said.
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