THE PSYCHIATRIC COMORBIDITY HYPOTHESIS REVISITED

In our original article (San Miguel, Forness, & Kavale, 1996), we make the case that children with learning disabilities who have comorbid p sychiatric disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or depression, may account for at least some of the difference s in social skills observed between LD and non-LD samples. In a respon se, Wiener (this issue) takes issue with our assumptions about comorbi d depression and provides some elaboration on our findings regarding c omorbid ADHD, Although depression may not represent a large proportion of comorbidity in LD, the overlap of depression with other comorbid p sychiatric disabilities and the possibility of comorbid conditions oth er than ADHD and depression may prove to be critical factors in the co morbidity hypothesis. Issues in school-identified LD samples and diagn ostic criteria for psychiatric diagnoses are also discussed.