Does ADD Affect Men and Women Differently?

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is commonly thought of as a childhood condition, but it doesn’t just disappear in adulthood. About 7 million kids in the United States have received an ADHD diagnosis, and about 15.5 million adults currently live with the condition.

You might notice that we refer to ADHD as simply ADD on our website. That’s because, as neuro-optometrists, it’s the attention-deficit side of the equation that we’re often called upon to address. ADD typically involves symptoms of inattention and distractibility, without the hyperactivity often associated with ADHD.

While ADD does affect men and women differently, many people experience vision challenges that can intensify symptoms of inattention, regardless of gender. Here, our team of neuro-optometrists at DeyeNAMICS explores both the gender-related aspects of ADD and the vision issues that both men and women may struggle with.

The Gender Component of ADHD

Gender influences how ADD and ADHD are diagnosed and experienced. Nearly twice as many boys as girls — 15% versus 8% — receive an ADHD diagnosis. By adulthood, this gender difference narrows to 1- 1.6, female to male.

We don’t fully understand how ADHD evolves from childhood to adulthood, and it can vary from one person to the next. We do know that boys tend to display more hyperactivity symptoms than girls. On the flipside, girls tend to present with more inattentive symptoms than boys.

Hyperactivity symptoms tend to wane with early intervention and socialization, which might explain why the gender gap becomes smaller in adulthood. As a result, many adults with ADHD struggle primarily with inattention, and vision may play a bigger role than expected.

ADHD and Vision Issues

The vision issues linked to ADHD don’t stem from the structure of the eyes, but rather, how the visual system functions within the brain. More specifically, research shows that people with ADHD may have more difficulty with:

• Spatial vision — helps you navigate your environment using your posture, balance, and peripheral vision to perceive objects and your relationship to them
  
  
• Focal vision — supports concentration and sustained focus primarily through clear central vision

People with ADHD may struggle more with the balance between focal and spatial visual processing because they’re more prone to functional vision issues, such as reduced near point of convergence, which is critical for focus. 

With convergence, your eyes come together to focus on something close to you. One study found that kids with ADHD were more likely to have significantly low near point convergence, making it more difficult to turn the eyes inward for longer periods of time during near work. As you might imagine, this type of convergence issue can largely affect your ability to focus and concentrate, especially while at work or school.

Many people with ADHD also have issues with eye tracking. In order to effectively move your eyes to accurately track a moving object, you must have a good orientation of where that object is in space. If spatial vision is impacted, it makes sense that eye tracking would be impacted. Vision issues related to ADHD tend to compound the inattention side of the condition, which is where we can help. Through targeted neuro-optometry treatment, such as corrective lenses, prisms, or Neuro-Visual Postural Therapy, we can improve attention issues.

Integrate Vision Care into your ADD Management Plan

Whether you’re male or female, if you struggle with vision issues that contribute to your inattention, we can help. Contact us at one of our offices in Sacramento, Bellflower, or Valencia, California; Guildford, Connecticut; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; or Plano, Texas, to schedule an appointment.