It could be attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
People with «attention deficit hyperactivity disorder» (ADHD) are ten times more likely to be narcissists, according to a new study. That's the conclusion reached by a team of eight psychologists who analyzed 164 adults with ADHD. The scientists were investigating the link between this distracting disorder and a condition known medically as «narcissistic personality disorder.»
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A team of researchers has found that people living with ADHD are ten times more likely to suffer from narcissism than the general population, where the figure is just one percent, the Daily Mail reports.
The psychologists who discovered the apparent link have proposed one theory to explain the connection, which stems from a childhood association between ADHD on the one hand, and a kind of impulsive overconfidence, thought to arise as a «defense mechanism,» on the other.
The tendency, clinically known as «positive illusory bias» in children, was linked to a deficit in the frontal lobe of the brain that affects executive function and limits «pragmatic language,» the researchers reported.
By comparison, about 9.5 percent of study participants with ADHD also had narcissistic personality disorder, the Daily Mail notes.
But those who fear the charismatic pull or manipulative skills that images of narcissists conjure up in the public imagination may be surprised to learn that people diagnosed with the condition may pose a greater threat to themselves, the researchers note.
The study's authors — psychologists from France, Switzerland and the UK — found that two sets of symptoms of «attention deficit hyperactivity disorder» were most closely linked to narcissism. They were «hyperactivity» and «impulsivity,» or high energy and quickness to act without thinking. «These aspects of narcissism were also associated with several aspects of psychosocial dysfunction,» the authors said, «including anxiety, depression, negative impulsivity, or poor quality of life.»
The researchers found that so-called «inattention symptoms,» or simply problems concentrating, were not strongly linked to narcissism.
The average age of the adult ADHD patients studied was 36.5 years old and there were more women in the group — 63.4 percent, or 104 out of 164 people, the Daily Mail reports. The team suspected that the link between narcissism and ADHD would have been even stronger if the patient data had been more evenly distributed between men and women.
All study participants had to be over 18 and have a valid diagnosis of ADHD to qualify, the Daily Mail reports. They also had to provide «informed consent to participate.»
«Research has shown that men score higher on narcissistic grandiosity but equally on vulnerability compared to women,» according to the findings of a new study published recently in a scientific journal.
«A more balanced gender distribution in our sample might have increased the prevalence of narcissistic personality disorder,» the authors of the publication stated.
The researchers studied the narcissistic personality traits of their ADHD patients using the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, a self-report questionnaire that has been used successfully in various versions since 1979. The scientists also worked with another, more modern self-report questionnaire, the Pathological Narcissism Inventory. This questionnaire measures seven aspects of narcissistic behavior, including: a tendency to exploit others, «grandiose fantasies,» self-sacrifice for self-affirmation (e.g., eating disorders to look thin), problems with self-esteem, devaluation, «anger at entitlement,» and hiding one's true self.
The researchers noted that these seven behaviors help researchers divide narcissists into two thematic categories, the Daily Mail continues: overconfidence due to «narcissistic grandiosity» and the vicious cycle of self-loathing, self-denial and self-attacking due to «narcissistic vulnerability.»
Previous research, the Daily Mail writes, has linked vulnerable narcissism to low self-esteem and life satisfaction, while reporting that «grandiose narcissism appears to resemble psychopathy.»
The researchers acknowledged, however, that their findings were further clouded by gender biases in their patient group: «Women are more likely to be diagnosed with borderline and histrionic personality disorders. These considerations may explain the high prevalence of borderline personality disorder.»
They noted that the symptom overlap between borderline personality disorder and the distressing self-perception of narcissistic vulnerability may also have skewed their study results, possibly suggesting a stronger link between ADHD and narcissism than was warranted.
«We wish to caution our readers against drawing excessive conclusions about the applicability of our results to the general ADHD population,» the researchers added.
«However,» the researchers added, «we believe our findings may be of interest, particularly given the paucity of research examining narcissism in ADHD.»