Abstract
There are a wide range of prevalence rates for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) cited in the world literature, with recent estimates converging on a figure of 5 % during the childhood years. The most recent figures from the British Child and Adolescent Mental Health Survey in the UK estimate a rate of 3.6 % in boys and 0.9 % in girls for any subtype of ADHD.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Polanczyk G, de Lima MS, Horta BL, et al. The worldwide prevalence of ADHD: a systematic review and metaregression analysis. Am J Psychiatry. 2007;164:942–8.
Ford T, Goodman R, Meltzer H. The British child and adolescent mental health survey 1999: the prevalence of DSM-IV disorders. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2003;42:1203–11.
Fayyad J, De Graaf R, Kessler R, et al. Cross-national prevalence and correlates of adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Br J Psychiatry. 2007;190:402–9.
Kessler RC, Adler L, Berkley R, et al. The prevalence and correlates of adult ADHD in the United States: results from the national comorbidity survey replication. Am J Psychiatry. 2006;163:716–23.
Simon V, Czobor P, Balint S, et al. Prevalence and correlates of adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: meta-analysis. Br J Psychiatry. 2009;194:204–11.
Faraone SV, Biederman J, Mick E. The age-dependent decline of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a meta-analysis of follow-up studies. Psychol Med. 2006;36:159–65.
McCarthy S, Asherson P, Coghill D, et al. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: treatment discontinuation in adolescents and young adults. Br J Psychiatry. 2009;194:273–7.
McArdle P, Prosser J, Kolvin I. Prevalence of psychiatric disorder: with and without psychosocial impairment. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2004;13:347–53.
Faraone SV, Biederman J. What is the prevalence of adult ADHD? Results of a population screen of 966 adults. J Atten Disord. 2005;9:384–91.
Kooij JJ, Buitelaar JK, van den Oord EJ, et al. Internal and external validity of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in a population-based sample of adults. Psychol Med. 2005;35:817–27.
Asherson P, Adamou M, Bolea B, et al. Is ADHD a valid diagnosis in adults? Yes BMJ. 2010;340:c549.
Moncrieff J, Timimi S. Is ADHD a valid diagnosis in adults? No BMJ. 2010;340:c547.
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellent (NICE). Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder clinical guidelines 72: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: diagnosis and management of ADHD in children, young people and adults. NICE website. www.nice.org.uk/CG72. Accessed 25 Aug 2012.
Kooij SJ, Bejerot S, Blackwell A, et al. European consensus statement on diagnosis and treatment of adult ADHD: the European network adult ADHD. BMC Psychiatry. 2010;10:67.
Todd RD, Rasmussen ER, Neuman RJ, et al. Familiality and heritability of subtypes of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in a population sample of adolescent female twins. Am J Psychiatry. 2001;158:1891–8.
Toplak ME, Pitch A, Flora DB, et al. The unity and diversity of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity in ADHD: evidence for a general factor with separable dimensions. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2009;37:1137–50.
Toplak ME, Sorge GB, Flora DB, et al. The hierarchical factor model of ADHD: invariant across age and national groupings? J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2011;53:292–303.
Wood AC, Rijsdijk F, Asherson P, et al. Hyperactive-impulsive symptom scores and oppositional behaviors reflect alternate manifestations of a single liability. Behav Genet. 2009;39:447–60.
Taylor E, Chadwick O, Heptinstall E, et al. Hyperactivity and conduct problems as risk factors for adolescent development. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1996;35:1213–26.
Thapar A, Harrington R, McGuffin P. Examining the comorbidity of ADHD-related behaviors and conduct problems using a twin study design. Br J Psychiatry. 2001;179:224–9.
Caspi A, Langley K, Milne B, et al. A replicated molecular genetic basis for subtyping antisocial behavior in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2008;65:203–10.
Langley K, Heron J, O’Donovan MC, et al. Genotype link with extreme antisocial behavior: the contribution of cognitive pathways. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2010;67:1317–23.
Asherson P, Gurling H. Quantitative and molecular genetics of ADHD. Curr Top Behav Neurosci. 2012;9:239–72.
Chen W, Zhou K, Sham P, et al. DSM-IV combined type ADHD shows familial association with sibling trait scores: a sampling strategy for QTL linkage. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet. 2008;147B:1450–60.
Barkley RA, Murphy KR, Dupaul GI, et al. Driving in young adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: knowledge, performance, adverse outcomes, and the role of executive functioning. J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2002;8:655–72.
de Graaf R, Kessler RC, Fayyad J, et al. The prevalence and effects of adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on the performance of workers: results from the WHO world mental health survey initiative. Occup Environ Med. 2008;65:835–42.
Gau SS, Kessler RC, Tseng WL, et al. Association between sleep problems and symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in young adults. Sleep. 2007;30:195–201.
Kessler RC, Adler L, Ames M, et al. The prevalence and effects of adult attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder on work performance in a nationally representative sample of workers. J Occup Environ Med. 2005;47:565–72.
Kooij JJS, Aeckerlin LP, Buitelaar JK. Functioning, comorbidity and treatment of 141 adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at a psychiatric outpatients’ department [Dutch]. Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 2001;145:1498–501.
Banerjee TD, Middleton F, Faraone SV. Environmental risk factors for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Acta Paediatr. 2007;96:1269–74.
Castellanos FX, Tannock R. Neuroscience of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: the search for endophenotypes. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2002;3:617–28.
Cubillo A, Halari R, Smith A, et al. A review of fronto-striatal and fronto-cortical brain abnormalities in children and adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and new evidence for dysfunction in adults with ADHD during motivation and attention. Cortex. 2011;48:194–215.
Cubillo A, Rubia K. Structural and functional brain imaging in adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Expert Rev Neurother. 2010;10:603–20.
Tye C, McLoughlin G, Kuntsi J, et al. Electrophysiological markers of genetic risk for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Expert Rev Mol Med. 2011;13:e9.
Thapar A, Rice F, Hay D, et al. Prenatal smoking might not cause attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: evidence from a novel design. Biol Psychiatry. 2009;66:722–7.
Coghill D, Nigg J, Rothenberger A, et al. Whither causal models in the neuroscience of ADHD? Dev Sci. 2005;8:105–14.
Johnson KA, Wiersema JR, Kuntsi J. What would Karl popper say? Are current psychological theories of ADHD falsifiable? Behav Brain Funct. 2009;5:15.
Stevens SE, Sonuga-Barke EJ, Kreppner JM, et al. Inattention/overactivity following early severe institutional deprivation: presentation and associations in early adolescence. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2008;36:385–98.
Faraone SV, Biederman J, Monuteaux MC. Toward guidelines for pedigree selection in genetic studies of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Genet Epidemiol. 2000;18:1–16.
Burt SA. Rethinking environmental contributions to child and adolescent psychopathology: a meta-analysis of shared environmental influences. Psychol Bull. 2009;135:608–37.
Boomsma DI, Saviouk V, Hottenga JJ, et al. Genetic epidemiology of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD index) in adults. PLoS ONE. 2010;5:e10621.
Freitag CM, Rohde LA, Lempp T, Romanos M. Phenotypic and measurement influences on heritability estimates in childhood ADHD. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2010;19:311–23.
Li D, Sham PC, Owen MJ, et al. Meta-analysis shows significant association between dopamine system genes and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Hum Mol Genet. 2006;15:2276–84.
Gizer IR, Ficks C, Waldman ID. Candidate gene studies of ADHD: a meta-analytic review. Hum Genet. 2009;126:51–90.
Franke B, Neale BM, Faraone SV. Genome-wide association studies in ADHD. Hum Genet. 2009;126:13–50.
Poelmans G, Pauls DL, Buitelaar JK, et al. Integrated genome-wide association study findings: identification of a neurodevelopmental network for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Am J Psychiatry. 2011;168:365–77.
Williams NM, Franke B, Mick E, et al. Genome-wide analysis of copy number variants in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: the role of rare variants and duplications at 15q13.3. Am J Psychiatry. 2011;169:195–204.
Williams NM, Zaharieva I, Martin A, et al. Rare chromosomal deletions and duplications in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: a genome-wide analysis. Lancet. 2010;376:1401–8.
Pelsser LM, Frankena K, Toorman J, et al. Effects of a restricted elimination diet on the behavior of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (INCA study): a randomised controlled trial. Lancet. 2011;377:494–503.
Stevenson J, Sonuga-Barke E, McCann D, et al. The role of histamine degradation gene polymorphisms in moderating the effects of food additives on children’s ADHD symptoms. Am J Psychiatry. 2010;167:1108–11.
Nigg JT, Nikolas M, Mark Knottnerus G, et al. Confirmation and extension of association of blood lead with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and ADHD symptom domains at population-typical exposure levels. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2010;51:58–65.
Aylward GP. Neurodevelopmental outcomes of infants born prematurely. J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2005;26:427–40.
Oesterheld JR, Wilson A. ADHD and FAS (Letter to the editor). J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1997;36:1163.
Steinhausen HC, Willms J, Spohr HL. Long-term psychopathological and cognitive outcome of children with fetal alcohol syndrome. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1993;32:990–4.
Streissguth AP, Bookstein FL, Sampson PD, Barr HM. Attention: prenatal alcohol and continuities of vigilance and attentional problems from 4 through 14 years. Dev Psychopathol. 1995;7:419–46.
Rutter M, Colvert E, Kreppner J, et al. Early adolescent outcomes for institutionally-deprived and non-deprived adoptees. I: disinhibited attachment. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2007;48:17–30.
Biederman J, Petty CR, Clarke A, et al. Predictors of persistent ADHD: an 11-year follow-up study. J Psychiatr Res. 2010;45:150–5.
Boonstra AM, Oosterlaan J, Sergeant JA, et al. Executive functioning in adult ADHD: a meta-analytic review. Psychol Med. 2005;35:1097–108.
Hervey AS, Epstein JN, Curry JF. Neuropsychology of adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a meta-analytic review. Neuropsychology. 2004;18:485–503.
Barkley RA. Behavioral inhibition, sustained attention, and executive functions: constructing a unifying theory of ADHD. Psychol Bull. 1997;121:65–94.
Sergeant JA. Modeling attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a critical appraisal of the cognitive-energetic model. Biol Psychiatry. 2005;57:1248–55.
Marco R, Miranda A, Schlotz W, et al. Delay and reward choice in ADHD: an experimental test of the role of delay aversion. Neuropsychology. 2009;23:367–80.
Sonuga-Barke EJ. The dual pathway model of AD/HD: an elaboration of neuro-developmental characteristics. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2003;27:593–604.
Kuntsi J, Wood AC, Rijsdijk F, et al. Separation of cognitive impairments in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder into 2 familial factors. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2010;67:1159–67.
Halperin JM, Trampush JW, Miller CJ, et al. Neuropsychological outcome in adolescents/young adults with childhood ADHD: profiles of persisters, remitters and controls. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2008;49:958–66.
Sagvolden T, Johansen EB, Aase H, et al. A dynamic developmental theory of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) predominantly hyperactive/impulsive and combined subtypes. Behav Brain Sci. 2005;28:397–419.
Broyd SJ, Demanuele C, Debener S, et al. Default-mode brain dysfunction in mental disorders: a systematic review. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2009;33:279–96.
Kendler KS, Neale MC. Endophenotype: a conceptual analysis. Mol Psychiatry. 2010;15:789–97.
Shaw P, Eckstrand K, Sharp W, et al. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is characterized by a delay in cortical maturation. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2007;104:19649–54.
Paloyelis Y, Mehta MA, Kuntsi J, et al. Functional MRI in ADHD: a systematic literature review. Expert Rev Neurother. 2007;7:1337–56.
Castellanos FX, Margulies DS, Kelly C, et al. Cingulate-precuneus interactions: a new locus of dysfunction in adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Biol Psychiatry. 2008;63:332–7.
Liston C, Malter Cohen M, Teslovich T, et al. Atypical prefrontal connectivity in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: pathway to disease or pathological end point? Biol Psychiatry. 2011;69:1168–77.
Banaschewski T, Brandeis D, Heinrich H, et al. Questioning inhibitory control as the specific deficit of ADHD-evidence from brain electrical activity. J Neural Transm. 2004;111:841–64.
McLoughlin G, Albrecht B, Banaschewski T, et al. Electrophysiological evidence for abnormal preparatory states and inhibitory processing in adult ADHD. Behav Brain Funct. 2010;6:66.
Del Campo N, Muller U, Sahakian B. Neural and behavioral endophenotypes in ADHD. In: Dalley JW, Carter CS, editors. Brain imaging in behavioral neuroscience (current topics in behavioral neurosciences (CTBN Series). New York: Springer; 2012.
Volkow ND, Wang GJ, Kollins SH, et al. Evaluating dopamine reward pathway in ADHD: clinical implications. JAMA. 2009;302:1084–91.
Volkow ND, Wang GJ, Newcorn JH, et al. Motivation deficit in ADHD is associated with dysfunction of the dopamine reward pathway. Mol Psychiatry. 2011;16:1147–54.
Fusar-Poli P, Rubia K, Rossi G, et al. Striatal dopamine transporter alterations in ADHD : pathophysiology or adaptation to psychostimulants? A meta-analysis. Am J Psychiatry. 2012;169:264–72.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Consortia
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Healthcare
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
UKAAN. (2013). The Scientific Basis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Adults. In: Handbook for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Adults. Springer Healthcare, Tarporley. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-908517-79-1_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-908517-79-1_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer Healthcare, Tarporley
Print ISBN: 978-1-908517-50-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-908517-79-1
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)