Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in adults: An overview

To assess the validity of adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (A DHD), we reviewed clinical, family, psychopharmacologic, neurobiological, a nd outcome studies. We found multiple reports describing adults with clinic al features highly reminiscent of the childhood ADHD. These adults, who are impulsive, inattentive, and restless, have the clinical "look and feel" of ADHD children. As with their childhood counterparts, many adults with ADHD suffer from antisocial, depressive, and anxiety disorders. They also show clinically significant impairments-histories of school failure, occupationa l problems, and traffic accidents. Studies of biological features show corr espondences between child and adult cases of ADHD, Both show familial aggre gation and a characteristic profile of neuropsychologic deficits; an emergi ng neuroimaging literature suggests that abnormalities in the same brain re gions underlie both the child and adult forms of the disorder, Although the se converging lines of evidence support the validity of ADHD in adults, fol low-up studies of ADHD children have yielded ambiguous results, This ambigu ity is in part due to differences in how researchers define the persistence of ADHD, a problem that suggests future research focus on how best to diag nose ADHD in adulthood (C) 2000 Society of Biological Psychiatry.