Alexithymia, ADHD and depressive symptoms in parents of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the presence of childhood attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, existing depressive symptoms and alexithymia levels of the parents of children with ADHD. Hypothesis: Considering ADHD has a strong family orientation and gene-environment interaction we predict that it can be seen that high level of alexithymia characteristics, depressive symptoms and ADHD symptoms during their chidhood in parents of children with ADHD likewise their children having hyperactivity, inattention, impulsivity and high level of alexithymia characteristics. Also we predict that depressive symptoms might be seen in parents of children with ADHD due to parenting load because of their children ADHD symptoms. Method: Our study was carried out with 64 parents of the children diagnosed ADHD by using DSM-IV based Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School Age Children-Presentand Lifetime Version-Turkish Version (K-SADS-PL-T) and according to criteria of DSM-5 and with 64 parents of children having no psychiatric disorder as a group of control were admitted to the outpatient clinic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department at Adnan Menderes University. Parents of children participating in th study were given Wender-Utah Rating Scale (WURS) for their childhood ADHD symptomatology, Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAO-20), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Turgay DSM-IV-Based Child and Adolescent Behavior Disorders Screening and Rating Scale (T-DSM-IV-S) to determine the severity of the symptoms of their children with ADHD. Results: The average scores of the Beck Depression scale and WURS of the parents of children with ADHD have been found to be significantly higher than the control group (p<0,05). While parents of Children with ADHD group had 9.4% scores above the cut-off value of TAS-20 , the parents in the control group had 1.6% scores above the cut-off value of TAS-20. However, there was no statistically significant difference compared bought groups. There was a moderate positive correlation between WURS, BDI and T-DSM-IV-S scores of parents of children with ADHD group (p<0,01). Also, there was a moderate positive correlation between scores of hyperactivity subscale, scores of oppositional defiant disorder subscales and the total scores of T-DSM-IV-S and the scores of subscales of emotion recognition, total and emotional expression subscale scores of TAO-20 (p<0,01). However, there was no significant relationship between extroverted thinking subscale of TAO-20 and the total score of T-DSM-IV-S. A moderate positive correlation was found between WURS and TAO-20 scores of parents of children with ADHD group (p<0,01). But, the scores of extroverted thinking subscale of TAO-20 and total scores of WURS showed no significant relationship. Discussion: We believe that our study will contribute to the literature because of being the first study evaluating the alexithymia levels in parents of children with ADHD. Keywords: ADHD, alexithymia, depression,child, parent, WURS