Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or hyperkinetic disorder in adults

prevalence of the hyperkinetic disorder is about 1.5% in 7-year-old boys in British inner cities (Taylor et a!, 1991). The long-termoutcome has been studiedin New York (Gittelman et a!, 1985) and in Montreal (Weiss et a!, 1985).Gittelman eta! followed up two cohorts of hyperactive 6â€" 12-year-old boys until they reached between 16 and 23, and compared them with an age matched control group.At follow-up approximately a quarter still met criteria for ADHD compared with 3% of the controls.A third met criteria for personality disorder and a sixth for substance abuse disorder.In the control group only 8% fell into each of those categories.There was considerable comorbidity, with half of the index group and a fifth of the controls attracting a DSMâ€"IIIdiagnosis.Those who did not were indistinguishable across a range of variables.Seven years later the proportion of ADHD had fallen to 8% and 1% respectively (Mannuzza et a!, 1993).In a similar study, Weiss et a! (1985) found that two-thirds of hyperactive children followed up into early adult life retained at least one disabling ADHD symptom, compared with 7% of a normal control group.Extrapolations from these studies suggest that approximately 0.5% to 1% of the young adult population has symptoms associated with ADHD. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or hyperkinetic disorder in adults