Psychiatric comorbidity in children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder who have administered to an university hospital child psychiatry outpatient clinic

ABSTRACTPSYCHIATRIC COMORBIDITY IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITHATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER WHO HAVEADMINISTERED TO AN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL CHILD PSYCHIATRYOUTPATIENT CLINICDr. Murat YUCEResidency thesis, Department of Child and Adolescent PsychiatrySupervisor: Assoc. Prof. S. Salih ZOROGLUSeptember 2006, 79 pagesAttention deficit hyperactivity disorder, in one of the most commonpsychiatric disorder in childhood which the symptoms are usually prolonged toadolescent and adulthood. It is well-known that more than 50% of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder cases also have comorbid psychiatric disorders. Inour country there is not any research which is done with using structured orsemistructured diagnostic instruments about attention deficit hyperactivitydisorder with comorbid psychiatric disorders. We evaluated the comorbidpsychopathology of children and adolescents with attention-deficit hyperactivitydisorder using a standardized diagnostic instrument. The Kiddie Schedule forAffective Disorder and Schizophrenia-Present and Lifetime Version-TurkishVersion was administered and completed in 108 patients who had been referredto the child and adolescent outpatient clinics at the Gaziantep UniversityŞahinbey Hospital from February 2006 to May 2006. All of the cases werediagnosed as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder according to DSM-IVcriteria. We analyzed their clinical charecteristics and psychiatric comorbidities,and assesed the correlation of any comorbidity with gender, age, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder subtype and prenatal nicotine exposure. Amongour 108 participants, 93 (86.1%) subjects were diagnosed with combined typeattention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, 15 (13.9%) were predominantlyinattentive type and there is no patient who has diagnosed as predominantlyhyperactive-impulsive type. 104 (96.3%) subjects had at least one comorbiddisorder such as oppositional defiant disorder (n= 75, 69.4%), anxiety disorders(n= 53, 49%) and affective disorders (n=13, 12%). Our patients ranged in agefrom six to 18 years. Among the factors including gender, age, attention-deficithyperactivity disorder subtype, and prenatal nicotine exposure, attention-deficithyperactivity disorder subtype was the only one significant to comorbidity in ourstudy. The results of this study suggest that comorbidity in our subjects issimilar to the results of previous studies. Out of all the attention-deficithyperactivity disorder subtypes, the combined type group had a significantlyhigher ratio of comorbid disorders and psychopathologies.Key words: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Psychiatric comorbidity