“ADHD symptoms seem to disappear, return, worsen, and improve over the lifetime for many people. Here, an expert explains the influences thought to contribute to these fluctuations.”
By Maggie Sibley, Ph.D. Verified Updated on April 14, 2025
“In the fall of 2023, U.S. census data revealed a dramatic spike in the number of Americans who said they had serious difficulty remembering, concentrating, or making decisions during and immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic, The New York Times reported. What was going on here? Did people develop ADHD symptoms during the pandemic? Or did milder symptoms suddenly become “serious” amid the pandemic’s increased demands and daily disruptions?
Either possibility is plausible, according to research from the Multimodal Treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Study (MTA). It found that individuals without a childhood history of ADHD can sometimes develop symptoms later. When this happens, their ADHD symptoms tend to emerge in adolescence, rather than in adulthood. They also tend to be temporary.”