Identifying New Symptoms for Diagnosing ADHD in Adulthood

Abstract

The current symptom list for ADHD in the DSM–IV (American Psychiatric Association, 2000) was developed on children and was only field tested using children (Lahey, Applegate, McBurnett, Biederman, Greenhill et al., 1994; Spitzer, Davies, & Barkley, 1989). The utility of extending that list to adults with ADHD is therefore an open question. This article addresses the important issue of whether or not better symptoms could be identified for the adult stage of this disorder than those 18 childhood symptoms currently represented in the DSM–IV.