Representatives from Holmusk recently attended the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology’s annual meeting to present findings from a study that explored how symptoms of ADHD present in men versus women.

The study cohort included 2,398 patients drawn from Holmusk’s NeuroBlu Database, the leading source for behavioral health real-world EHR-derived data. Each patient had a diagnosis of ADHD and symptom data recorded by mental health professionals within the first six months after diagnosis.

For the purposes of the study, symptoms were defined in alignment with the 18 symptoms outlined in the DSM-5, an important consideration for research that closely mirrors real-world clinical care. The research team then created networks of symptoms and derived centrality measures to better understand the associations and relationships among different symptoms. Centrality measures help to reveal which symptoms in a network are of high importance, giving insight into which symptoms should be targeted in treatment. 

Overall, symptom clustering was aligned with the current understanding of ADHD. For male patients, the strongest symptoms included excessive or inappropriate movement, being “on the go,” and failure of close attention. For female patients, the strongest symptoms differed and included difficulty remaining seated, frequently interrupting, and being easily distracted.

“Because Holmusk has such strong symptom data available within the NeuroBlu Database, we are able to conduct studies like this one that reveal new insights about symptoms, which in turn impacts clinical care,” said Scott Kollins, PhD, the study’s lead author and Holmusk’s former Chief Medical Officer. “In this case, providers caring for patients with ADHD should be aware that symptom presentation differs between genders, which could be used in more precise identification, diagnosis, and treatment of this disorder.”

View the poster here.