Summary: Diagnosing ADHD in Adolescence
In this article, the researchers looked at adolescent-specific practical problems that are associated with current practice parameters for diagnosing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The specific issues that the researchers found interesting were the use of self-versus informant ratings, diagnostic threshold, and retrospective reporting of childhood symptoms. The purpose was to aid in diagnosing ADHD in adolescence.
The method involved examining 164 adolescents with a childhood diagnosis of ADHD and 119 control subjects with no ADHD diagnosis. The ADHD children were enrolled in a program called the Pittsburgh ADHD Longitudinal Study (PALS), which is a prospective longitudinal study of individuals with childhood ADHD diagnoses. The researchers looked at the data from that study and also parent, teacher, and self-reports of symptoms and impairment.
The results indicated that 70% of the ADHD group, diagnosed as children, continued to meet DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for ADHD. However, 17% of the adolescents possessed...
Furthermore, adolescents with ADHD did not exhibit the same level of symptoms of hyperactivity/impulsivity as those diagnosed in childhood, which suggested to the researchers that there may be a need to examine the role of those two criteria in diagnosis. Furthermore, the researchers believed that emphasizing impairment, not symptoms, helped with identification of adolescents with childhood ADHD diagnoses. Parent and teacher reports were helpful in diagnosis, but self-reports were not as helpful. As a result, the researchers suggested that parent retrospective reports could be useful in the diagnosis of ADHD in adolescence. The researchers also suggested that hyperactivity and impulsivity not be considered necessary for an adolescent ADHD diagnosis.
References
Sibley, M., Pelham, W., Molina, B., Gnagy, E., Waschbusch, D., Garefino, A., Kuriyan, A.,
Babinski, D., & Karch, K. (2011). Diagnosing ADHD in adolescence. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 80(1),…
