Anders Hansen on ADHD: “Absolutely life-determining for the person”

Anders Hansen is current with a new series where he explores people’s personality.
One of the topics he delved into is the diagnosis of ADHD.

– These individuals are very driven and often creative. They are the ones who push boundaries.

Difficulty concentrating, hyperactivity and impulsivity. These are the distinguishing features of a person diagnosed with ADHD. According to the research, the cause of the diagnosis can be traced to a specific gene, says Anders Hansen, specialist in psychiatry in Efter fem.

– The gene affects a substance called dopamine in the brain, and there is a variant of this gene that many people are born with, and it increases the risk of ADHD.

Traveled to Kenya for answers

To delve deeper into how what we today call ADHD evolved in the hunter-gatherer society, Anders Hansen has traveled to the Kenyan savannah in a new series on SVT. Research has shown that people who live as hunters and gatherers and who have the gene linked to ADHD have a higher BMI.

– You have probably been skilled at hunting and had an easier time finding food, says Anders Hansen.

According to him, this skill in people with ADHD has been of great importance to evolution.

– This could mean that the features we call ADHD today were completely life-determining for humans during the way we lived 99.9 percent of our time on earth, i.e. as hunters and gatherers, says Anders Hansen.

According to the National Board of Health and Welfare, there are approximately 190,000 people aged 5-64 in Sweden who have been diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed medication.

That’s why ADHD exists

“Why does ADHD exist?” asks a viewer Anders Hansen in Efter fem.

– ADHD exists because it has helped humans survive. These individuals are very driven and often creative. They are the ones who push boundaries, says Anders Hansen and continues:

– These things that we today regard as a defect are completely life-determining for humans during our history.