Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
A Systematic Evaluation of ADHD and Comorbid Psychopathology in a Population-Based Twin Sample
Section snippets
Subjects
This sample contains 812 complete male and female twin pairs ages 7-19 years at time of interview identified from the Missouri Twin Registry from 1996 through 2002 as part of a study to examine the genetic epidemiology of ADHD. A screening interview assessed the presence of three past or present inattentive symptoms and three past or present hyperactive/impulsive symptoms for each twin. Families were included in the study if either twin of the pair exhibited three or more present or past
Characteristics of Sample, DSM-IV ADHD Subtype, and Co-occurring Disorders
The total sample consists of 1,624 subjects (213 MZ pairs, 599 DZ pairs [151 male MZ, 180 male DZ, 352 DZ opposite sex]) with a mean age of 12.97 ± 3.2 years. Male subjects composed 62.5% of the study population. Based on DSM-IV criteria for ADHD, 163 (10%) subjects were diagnosed as the primarily inattentive subtype, 24 (1.5%) the predominantly hyperactive subtype, and 180 (11.1%) as the combined subtype. Cases in each subtype were predominantly male (83% inattentive, 75% hyperactive, 86%
DISCUSSION
We sought to systematically assess the aggregation of childhood psychiatric symptoms and disorders in a population-based sample of male and female twins. Examination of ADHD, ODD, CD, and depression using latent class analysis and DSM-IV disorder criteria resulted in five main findings. First, the seven classes identified in this population are remarkably similar to the structure of observed classes in previous reports (Rasmussen et al., 2002b).
Second, diagnoses of ODD, CD, and depression
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This work is supported by NIH grant MH52813 (Dr. Todd).
Disclosure: The authors have no financial relationships to disclose.