Study on ADHD, Provide New Insight Into Prevalence and Treatment Needs

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is both under and over diagnosed.

That’s the result of one of the largest studies conducted on ADHD in the United States, published in the Journal of Attention Disorders.

A substantial number of children being treated for ADHD may not have the disorder, while many children who do have the symptoms are going untreated, according to the 10-year Project to Learn about ADHD in Youth (PLAY) study funded by the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention

"Childhood ADHD is a major public health problem. Many studies rely on parent reporting of an ADHD diagnosis, which is a function of both the child’s access to care in order to be diagnosed, and the parent’s perception that there is a problem," said Robert McKeown, of the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health, who led the South Carolina portion of the study.

"Further complicating our understanding of the prevalence of ADHD and its treatment is that the diagnosis often is made by a clinician who has little experience assessing and diagnosing mental disorders. As a result, ADHD is both under and over diagnosed," said McKeown, distinguished professor emeritus in the department of epidemiology and biostatistics.

The study, conducted between 2002-2012, was a collaborative research project with the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School and School of Medicine and the University of Oklahoma’s Health Sciences Center.

"To our knowledge, this is the largest community-based epidemiologic study of ADHD to date," McKeown said.