ADHD in children and adolescents with Type 1 diabetes: Do they have an increased risk of diabetic complications?

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and type 1 diabetes (T1D) are diverse disorders with separate causes and treated by different health care professionals. Individuals with comorbidity of ADHD and T1D are reported to have poor metabolic control compared to T1D patients without ADHD. Maintaining adequate treatment adherence and glycaemic control in T1D requires the ability to organize several critical daily management tasks; frequent blood glucose monitoring, carbohydrate counting, insulin dose calculation and administration. Successful treatment of T1D requires good planning and organizing skills and impulsivity may be a challenge. Research on this comorbidity is still scarce. How many children in Norway that are diagnosed with both T1D and ADHD are not known. Our objectives are to find the number of children with the comorbidity of T1D and ADHD in Norway and to investigate whether these children have an increased health risk compared to children with only T1D.

Primary Investigator:

Co-investigators/participants:

  • Kristin A. Bakke, MD, PhD student, Norwegian Centre of Expertise for Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Hypersomnias, Division of Paediatric and Adolescent Medicine, OUS, Childhood Diabetes Registry, Division of Paediatric and Adolescent Medicine, OUS

  • Sissel Berge Helverschou, psychologist, senior researcher, Norwegian Centre of Expertise for Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Hypersomnias, Division of Paediatric and Adolescent Medicine, OUS

  • Egil Midtlyng, psychologist, Norwegian Centre of Expertise for Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Hypersomnias, Division of Paediatric and Adolescent Medicine, OUS

Other scientific or public outreach activities 2024

PhD student Kristin A. Bakke had an oral presentation at ISPAD-2024 in Lisboa, Oct. 2024:

Do children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have a worse metabolic outcome than children with T1D without ADHD?   The Norwegian Childhood Diabetes Registry, O-31, K.A. Bakke, N.A. Lund-Blix , E. Midtlyng , S.B. Helverschou , T. Skrivarhaug