Mother and teacher reports of ADHD symptoms: DSM-IV questionnaire data

Objective: Diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is thought to be best accomplished by a multimodal approach. in many research and clinical settings, such extensive procedures may not be feasible. A scr eening instrument that could identify children meeting necessary (but not s ufficient) criteria would permit selection of subgroups for more resource-i ntensive diagnostic procedures. Method: The Diagnostic Rating Scale (DRS) w as completed by the mothers and teachers of 124 children referred to hospit al-based clinics and 225 nonreferred children. The authors performed princi pal components analysis (PCA) on the questionnaire, compared the scores obt ained by children from the 2 samples, and examined age and gender effects. Diagnoses derived from the DRS were not validated against structured diagno stic interviews. Results: PCAs replicated the DSM-IV symptom combinations. Children from the referred sample exhibited more symptoms (p<.001) than chi ldren from the community sample. Boys were overrepresented among the childr en who received DRS-derived ADHD diagnoses. Girls were more likely (92%) to receive a diagnosis of ADHD, predominantly inattentive subtype, than other ADHD diagnoses. Conclusions: The results of this study provide preliminary support for the validity of the parent and teacher DRS as time- and resour ce-efficient screening instruments for examining symptoms associated with A DHD.