Abstract
To assess the validity of adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), we
reviewed clinical, family, psychopharmacologic, neurobiological, and outcome studies.
We found multiple reports describing adults with clinical features highly reminiscent
of the childhood ADHD. These adults, who are impulsive, inattentive, and restless,
have the clinical “look and feel” of ADHD children. As with their childhood counterparts,
many adults with ADHD suffer from antisocial, depressive, and anxiety disorders. They
also show clinically significant impairments—histories of school failure, occupational
problems, and traffic accidents. Studies of biological features show correspondences
between child and adult cases of ADHD. Both show familial aggregation and a characteristic
profile of neuropsychologic deficits; an emerging neuroimaging literature suggests
that abnormalities in the same brain regions underlie both the child and adult forms
of the disorder. Although these converging lines of evidence support the validity
of ADHD in adults, follow-up studies of ADHD children have yielded ambiguous results.
This ambiguity is in part due to differences in how researchers define the persistence
of ADHD, a problem that suggests future research focus on how best to diagnose ADHD
in adulthood.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
March 28,
2000
Received in revised form:
March 24,
2000
Received:
December 20,
1999
Identification
Copyright
© 2000 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
