ArticleBMC psychiatry2014
Association of symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder with symptoms of excessive exercising in an adult general population sample.
Article in BMC psychiatry, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 61 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms in patients with schizophrenia.Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica · 2019Pooled it
- Mortality in people with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): Examining how risk is embodied in a pooling of two prospective cohort studies.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Medical management and differential diagnosis of restrictive eating disorders in men: a case study report with co-produced recommendations.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- Prevalence and associated factors of ADHD symptoms among higher education students in Southern Ethiopia.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Global screening of health behaviors: Introducing Lev-screening (Lev-s)-development and psychometric evaluation.PloS one · 2024Article
- How depression and ADHD relate to exercise addiction: a cross-sectional study among frequent exercisers.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- The Effects of Different Exercise Approaches on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Adults: A Randomised Controlled Trial.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Effects of Physical Activity, Exercise and Sport on Executive Function in Young People with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Systematic Review.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2022Review
- Individuals at Risk of Exercise Addiction Have Higher Scores for Depression, ADHD, and Childhood Trauma.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2021Article
- Physical exercise in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder - evidence and implications for the treatment of borderline personality disorder.Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation · 2020Review
- Effects of Exercise on Cognitive Performance in Children and Adolescents with ADHD: Potential Mechanisms and Evidence-based Recommendations.Journal of clinical medicine · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAn increasing number of studies suggest that physical activity can alleviate symptoms of ADHD in children. In adults there are currently insufficient data available on this subject. Interestingly, ADHD and forms of excessive exercising have both been shown to occur more frequently in adult athletes. The aim of the present study was to empirically investigate the association of ADHD and excessive exercising in the adult general population.
methodsFor diagnosis of adult and childhood ADHD a large representative sample of the German general population (n = 1,615) completed a retrospective assessment of childhood ADHD and a self-report assessment of adult ADHD. Excessive exercising as well as putative mediating variables such as eating related psychopathology, depression, and anxiety were assessed using standardized self-rating instruments.
resultsIndividuals with childhood only ADHD had a significantly higher frequency of excessive exercising (9.0%) than individuals without ADHD (2.7%). Excessive exercising was significantly associated with childhood only ADHD compared to no ADHD with an odds ratio of 3.239 even after controlling for socio-demographic variables, BMI, eating related and general psychopathology.
conclusionsOur data show that excessive exercising is significantly overrepresented in individuals in which ADHD symptoms in childhood have not persisted into adulthood. We thus hypothesize that a subgroup of individuals might suppress ADHD symptoms by excessive sporting activities. Although in healthy adults physical activity has been associated with immediate and long term improvements in cognitive functioning, studies empirically investigating associations between the effects of physical activity and adult ADHD are rare. Further studies are warranted to explore the potential role of physical activity in the treatment of ADHD in adults.
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