Le trouble déficit de l’attention/hyperactivité à l’âge adulte : concept, tableau clinique, stratégies diagnostiques et thérapeutiques

Abstract

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) was considered, for a long time, as a disorder affecting children and adolescents, and was most often identified in the early development. It was less known that ADHD can be found in adults. Several arguments (clinics, neuropsychology, neuroanatomy, genetics, longitudinal studies and pharmacology) confirm that ADHD persists in adulthood for most of children and should be still treated, as long as the disorder leads to impairments. Nevertheless, ADHD in adults is considerably misdiagnosed in France. In fact, this can be explained by controverse, by its difficulty to be diagnosed, by a lack of consideration of developmental aspects… Diagnosis is based on clinical aspects, developmental and familial histories, adaptative strategies and functional alteration. Clinical interview put forward particularities in adulthood: decreasing (or change) of hyperactivity and impulsivity, persistance of attentional deficit, increasing of dysexecutive syndrome because demands in planification, social relationships and emotional management are often higher when people grow up. Several domains can be impaired: raising children, driving cars, working, taking care of themselves, daily managing… One of the most difficult issue about adult ADHD concerns criteriology. Although some authors (Wender, Hallowell and Ratey) have developped criteria based on more specific features of adulthood than those described in DSM-IV, criteria have still to be discussed: age-of-onset, number of symptoms required… Assesment scales can help clinicians to evaluate ADHD symptoms and impairments of their adult patients. Main scales are: Conners Adult ADHD Rating Scale (CAARS) and Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) for detection, ADHD behaviour checklist and ADHD rating scale IV for diagnosis, Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS) for retrospective diagnosis in childhood and Brown Attention Deficit Disorder Scale for a better evaluation of executive functions. This evaluation should be completed by neuropsychological testing. The results can confirm the diagnosis and guide the treatment according to the neuropsychological profile. The more salient tasks for the diagnosis of adult ADHD seem to be: Continuous Performance Test (CPT) for selective and sustained attention, Trail making Test part B for cognitive flexibility, Stroop color/word interference test for inhibition capacity, verbal fluency and processing speed in WAIS-R. It is thus extremely important: (i) to recognize that ADHD affects also adults, at high rate (4% of general population), (ii) to keep in mind that developmental particularities make the disorder more “cognitive” than “behavioral”, (iii) to clarify the link between adult ADHD and the others psychiatric disorders, especially bipolar disorder, (iv) and to know that most of the adults with ADHD can be successfully treated by psychostimulants and psychotherapy, as in childhood. In France, only few teams evaluate ADHD in adulthood. So, one of the purpose of our article is to enable a better consideration of adult ADHD in our country.