At Cadabams Hospitals — a 33-year psychiatric institution with hospitals in JP Nagar (Bengaluru), Whitefield (Bengaluru), and Cadabams Spark Hospital Mysore — one of the most under-recognised paediatric mental health patterns is ADHD in girls. By the time a girl reaches our outpatient clinic with an ADHD assessment request, she is often a teenager, often performing below her potential despite obvious intelligence, and often carrying years of being labelled "quiet" or "a daydreamer."
ADHD is diagnosed more frequently in boys. This reflects both a true higher prevalence and significant under-recognition in girls, whose presentation tends to be less disruptive. Dr. Arohi Vardhan, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at Cadabams, explains why ADHD in girls vs boys is one of the most missed diagnostic patterns in India. 24/7 helpline: 97414 76476.
Is ADHD More Common in Boys Than Girls?
ADHD is diagnosed more frequently in boys than girls. The diagnostic gap is partly real — there is genuine evidence of higher prevalence in boys — and partly an artefact of recognition. Girls with ADHD are systematically under-recognised because their presentation does not disrupt the classroom or family in the way the textbook hyperactive presentation does.
A boy with hyperactive-impulsive ADHD interrupts class, runs in the corridor, climbs furniture. He is referred. A girl with inattentive ADHD stares out the window, finishes work slowly, forgets the homework she completed. She is not referred — she is described as a daydreamer.
Are There Different Tests for Diagnosing ADHD in Girls Versus Boys?
The formal assessment tools are the same. What differs is how a clinician interprets behavioural observations and clinical history — because the presentation can look very different.
Dr. Arohi's framing: "The assessment tools will remain the same technically. However, these are not always assessment-based diagnoses — they are clinical diagnoses. So the assessment remains the same, but clinically, you continue to see the dysfunction in a slightly different manner."
Translating that into practical terms: the rating scales, school reports, and behavioural checklists are identical. But the clinical eye looking at the results has to be calibrated for the inattentive presentation — slower processing, internalised frustration, low classroom disruption — rather than the hyperactive presentation.
Can a Quiet, Well-Behaved Girl Have ADHD?
Yes. The inattentive presentation of ADHD does not produce behavioural disruption. A child can be sitting quietly while experiencing significant attentional difficulty — her body is still, her hand is on the page, and her brain has been somewhere else for the last twenty minutes. The longer this goes undiagnosed, the more academic ground is lost and the more internalised the narrative of "I'm just not smart enough" becomes.
Adult women who present at the Cadabams outpatient clinic for the first ADHD assessment in their thirties or forties often describe exactly this pattern reaching back to childhood.
Related reading from Cadabam's Hospitals: ADHD, when medication is needed, and high-achieving child.