Common health condition also makes you more likely to be a NARCISSIST

People with 'attention deficit hyperactivity disorder' (ADHD) are ten times more likely to also suffer from narcissism, a study suggests.

That's the finding after a team of eight psychologists analyzed 164 adults with ADHD, exploring the connection between this distracting disorder and the condition medically known as 'narcissistic personality disorder' (NPD).

The team concluded those living with ADHD are ten times more likely to suffer from narcissism compared to the general population, where it hovers at just one percent.

The psychologists who unearthed the apparent link proposed one theory for the connection, that stems from a childhood link between ADHD and a kind of impulsive over-confidence believed to emerge as a 'defense mechanism.' 

A new study that analyzed 164 adults with ADHD explored the connection between the disorder and the condition clinically known as 'narcissistic personality disorder' (NPD): roughly 9.5 percent of those with ADHD in the study also had NPD

This tendency, clinically known as 'positive illusory bias'(PIB) in children, has been linked to a deficit in the brain's frontal lobe that impacts executive function and limits 'pragmatic language,' they reported.

Comparatively, roughly 9.5 percent of those with ADHD in the study also had NPD. 

But those who fear the charismatic pull or the manipulative skills that visions of a narcissist conjure up in the public imagination might be surprised to learn that those with the diagnosis might be a greater threat to themselves, the researchers noted.

The study's authors — psychologists from France, Switzerland and the UK — found that two sets of ADHD symptoms tracked the most closely with narcissism.

They are ADHD 'hyperactivity' and 'impulsivity,' or high energy and quick to act without thinking.

'These dimensions of narcissism were also associated with several aspects of psychosocial dysfunction,' the authors wrote, 'including anxiety, depression, negative urgency impulsiveness or poor quality of life.'

So-called 'inattentive symptoms' or simple trouble paying attention, they found, bore no strong relationship with narcissism.

Of the adult ADHD patients studied, the average or mean age was 36.5 years old, and the group skewed more female, 63.4 percent or 104 of the 164 total individuals.

The team suspected the link between narcissism and ADHD would have been even stronger had their pool of patient data been more evenly divided male and female. 

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All study subjects had to be older than 18 and have a credible ADHD diagnosis to qualify. They also had to provide 'informed consent for participation.'

'Research has shown that males score higher on narcissistic grandiosity but equally on vulnerability compared to females,' the concluded in their new study, published this June in the Journal of Psychiatric Research. 

'A more balanced distribution of genders in our sample could have increased the prevalence of NPD.' they said. 

The researchers investigated their ADHD patients' more narcissistic traits via a version of a self-reported questionnaire, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), that has been proven successful in its various permutations since 1979.

They also worked with another, more modern self-reported questionnaire, the Pathological Narcissism Inventory (PNI).

The PNI tabulates seven aspects of narcissistic behavior, including: a tendency to exploit others, 'grandiose fantasies,' self-sacrificing to enhance oneself (e.g. eating disorders to look thin), self-esteem issues, devaluing, 'entitlement rage' and hiding one's true self.

The researchers noted these seven behaviors help researchers sort narcissists into two thematic categories: the over-confidence of 'narcissistic grandiosity' and the vicious cycle of self-loathing, self-denial and lashing out of 'narcissistic vulnerability.' 

Past studies have linked vulnerable narcissism to low self-esteem and life-satisfaction while reporting that 'grandiose narcissism seems to resemble psychopathy.'

It's likely we know someone who frequently posts selfies to Instagram, but they might be experiencing 'vulnerable narcissism' 

The researchers, however, acknowledged that their findings were even further shaded by the gender bias in their cohort of patients, 

'Females are more frequently diagnosed with borderline and histrionic personality disorders,' these psychologists noted. 'These considerations may explain the high prevalence of BPD [borderline personality disorder].'

Overlapping symptoms between BPD and the torturous self-regard of the narcissistic vulnerability may have also skewed their study's results — possibly showing a stronger connection between ADHD and narcissism than warranted, they noted. 

'We want to warn our readers to not over-conclude on the generalizability of our findings to the overall population of ADHD patients,' the researchers wrote. 

'However,' the added, 'we believe that our results may be of interest, especially when considering the scarcity of research conducted on narcissism in ADHD.