Long-Term Effects of CBT on Quality of Life in Adults With ADHD

Background and objective: Although the short-term effects of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in adult patients with ADHD are established, not a lot is known about longer-term effects. To assess the additive value of CBT to pharmacotherapy in the long term, an assessment of ADHD symptoms and quality of life in patients that followed CBT four to eight years ago is done. To understand how CBT impacts quality of life in patients, an assessment of self-efficacy and self-esteem is made. Furthermore, patients will be asked whether they currently still use medicine for ADHD and CBT strategies. To evaluate whether CBT impacts the economic situation of the patient, an assessment of income, occupation status and the housing situation of the patient is done. Study Design: As this is a follow-up, observational cohort study, the same patients from Wettstein et al. (2021) are invited for participation. During February and March, patients are informed via email about the study. Online, patients are asked to provide informed consent and are able to fill in the complete questionnaire. The duration of the questionnaire is 45 minutes and each patient is compensated with a 25 Euro gift card. Outcome variables: ADHD symptoms are measured on the ADHD-RS-IV, quality of life is measured on the AAQoL scale, self-efficacy is measured on the GSES, and self-esteem is measured on the RSES. Medication status, CBT strategy use and data about the socioeconomic status of the patient is asked in multiple choice questions.