Abstract:

OBJECTIVE: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the sociodemographic characteristics, comorbid psychiatric diagnoses and their relationship with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) subtypes of children and adolescents who applied to the Child-Adolescent Psychiatry Outpatient Clinic of the Karadeniz Technical University Faculty of Medicine and diagnosed with ADHD. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 164 children and adolescent diagnosed with ADHD were included in our study and the participants were divided into three groups as ADHD-combine type (ADHD-C), ADHD-inattention predominant type (ADHD-I) and ADHD-hyperactivity and impulsivity predominant type (ADHD-H). The groups were compared in terms of their sociodemographic characteristics and comorbid psychiatric diagnoses. RESULTS: Of the 164 children with ADHD, 120 (%73,2) were male and 44 (%26,8) were female. Of these children, 81 (%49,4) met the criteria of ADHD-C group, 69 (%42,1) of them met the criteria of ADHD-I group and 14 (%8,5) of them met the criteria of ADHD-H group. The most common additional psychiatric diagnosis in our sample was the Oppositional Defiant Disorder and 43 (%26,2) children had this diagnosis in the whole sample. 41 (%25) children had Conduct Disorder, 36 (%22) children had Anxiety Disorder, 22 (%13,4) children had Enüresis, 17 (%10,4) children had Tic Disorder, 12 (%7,3) children had Spesific Learning Disorder and 10 (%6,1) children had Depressive Disorder as additional diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: Children with a comorbid psychiatric diagnosis in addition to ADHD are more likely to be resistant to treatment. Both ADHD and comorbidities in these children need to be successfully treated. In our study, high comorbidity rates showed that these diagnoses should be treated effectively while treating ADHD.

Keywords: