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"AD/HD is more common than doctors may have previously believed, according to a new study from the Mayo Clinic.
The report, published in the March issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, shows that AD/HD affects up to 7.5 percent of school-aged children. The National Institute of Health, using information from previous studies, had estimated the number of children with AD/HD to be between 3% - 5% of the population.
"The 7.5 percent incidence of AD/HD from the current study includes subjects who met the most stringent research criteria and are likely to represent cases that most clinicians would regard as true cases of AD/HD," says William Barbaresi, M.D., a Mayo Clinic developmental and behavioral pediatric specialist and lead author of the study. "This study represents what we believe to be the largest population-based study of the occurrence (incidence) of AD/HD to date."
According to Barbaresi, the AD/HD cases in the Mayo study were identified on the basis of rigorous research criteria, including a clinical diagnosis and extensive supporting documentation. Researchers also obtained comprehensive information about study subjects from both medical and school records.
Although the results from the Mayo Clinic study are higher than the generally accepted 3% - 5% figure, AD/HD experts warn that many children and adults who could benefit from appropriate treatment still remain undiagnosed. Doctors in one study estimated that only one in eight children who qualify for diagnosis actually receive medication for their AD/HD."A quick summary of statistical research of Russell Barkley
- On average, there are 1 to 3 children who have ADHD in every classroom of 30 students.
- Three to six more boys are diagnosed than girls.
- The rate of emotional development for children with ADHD is 30% slower than their non-ADD peers. For example, a 10-year-old with ADHD operates at the maturity level of about a 7-year-old; a 16-year-old beginning driver is using the decision making skills of an 11-year-old.
- 65% of children with ADHD have problems with defiance, non-compliance and other problems with authority figures, including verbal hostility and temper tantrums.
- 25% of students with ADHD have other serious learning problems in one or more of these areas: oral expression, listening skills, reading comprehension, and math.
- Half of all ADHD students have listening comprehension problems.
- About one-third of these students have one or more of the following:
- Languange deficits (poor listening comprehension, poor verbal expression, poor reading comprehension)
- Poor organizational skills
- Poor memory
- Poor fine motor skills
- Students with ADHD are two to three times more likely to have problems with expressive language than their non-ADD peers.
- 75% of boys with ADD are hyperactive; 60% of girls with ADD are hyperactive.
- 40% of children who have ADHD have at least one parent who has ADHD
- 50% of children who have ADHD also have sleep problems.
- Parents of a child who has ADHD are three times as likely to separate or divorce as parents of non-ADD children
- Teenagers with ADHD have almost four times as many traffic citations as their non-ADD peers.
- Teens with ADHD have four times as many car wrecks and are seven times more likely to have a second accident.
- 21% of teens with ADHD skip school repeatedly.
- 35% eventually drop out of school.
- 45% have been suspended.
- 30% have failed or had to repeat a year of school"
