The Relationship Between Eating-Attitudes and Clinical Characteristics, Agouti-Related Peptide, and Other Biochemical Markers in Adult-Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Objective: In our study, we aimed to evaluate eating-attitudes in adult-ADHD, and to examine its relationship with sociodemographic, clinical, AgRP, and biochemical parameters. Method: The study included 70 adult-patients and 47 healthy-controls. The DIVA2.0, SCID-1 was administered to the participants. Eating-Attitudes Test (EAT), Night-Eating Questionnaire (NEQ), Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS-11) were filled by the participants. Results: We found that psychological state affect eating-attitudes in adult-ADHD ( p = .013), emotional eating is more common, nocturnal chronotype is dominant ( p < .001), NES is more frequent ( p < .001), waist circumference measurement is higher ( p = .030), and lipid profile is deteriorated ( p < .001). AgRP levels were significantly lower in patients treated with methylphenidate ( p = .021). Those who received methylphenidate treatment had less NES than those who did not. Deterioration in eating-attitudes and symptom severity of night eating in ADHD, it was positively correlated with clinical severity of ADHD and impulsivity. In addition, age and increase in night eating symptoms were predictors of deterioration in eating attitudes in adult-ADHD. We found that impaired eating-attitudes and impulsivity severity were also predictors of NES ( p = .006, p = .034). Conclusion: The necessity of adult-ADHD treatment has been demonstrated by the deterioration in eating-attitudes and cardiometabolic risk dimensions and the underlying mechanisms.