Young females with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at greater risk of developing eating disorders in adolescence, research suggests.

An ethically diverse study looked at 228 girls, 140 who had been diagnosed with ADHD and 88 matched comparison girls with ADHD.

University of Virginia psychologists assessed participants between the ages of six and 12-years, and followed up five years later.

Girls displaying the combined type of ADHD (both inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity) were more likely to show adolescent bulimia nervosa symptoms, when compared to girls with the inattentive type of ADHD (inattention only).

"Adolescent girls with ADHD frequently develop body-image dissatisfaction and may go through repeating cycles of binge eating and purging behaviours that are common in bulimia nervosa," study leader Amori Yee Mikami said.

"As they get older, their impulsivity may make it difficult for them to maintain healthy eating and a healthy weight, resulting in self-consciousness about their body image and the binging and purging symptoms."

Girls with both types of ADHD were more likely to be overweight, to have been rejected by their peers and experienced critical parenting in childhood than girls without ADHD, the study noted.

The findings appear in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

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