Validez de los Criterios DSM-IV según Respuesta de los Profesores en el Diagnóstico del Trastorno por Déficit de Atención con Hiperactividad

Abstract

Objective: To study the validity of each of the DSM-IV items for the diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and to look for a reduced model of items that would allow prediction of ADHD. Method: We use the information from an epidemiological study of ADHD with a sample of 1095 children. Of these, 6.6 % are ADHD cases. ADHD cases are defined according to ADHD RS-IV and DSM-IV clinical criteria. Controls are defined by exclusion. Results: The model of logistic regression that best predicts the inattentive phenotype is composed of the ADHD RS-IV (teachers’ version) items 5, 7, 13, 15 and 17 (Sensitivity: 88.7%, Specificity: 84.2%); the hyperactive / impulsive phenotype by the items 2, 4, 8 and 16 (Sensitivity: 86.4%, Specificity: 83.7%) and the combined phenotype by the items 2, 6, 15, 16 and 17 (Sensitivity: 91.6%, Specificity: 84.4%). A reduction of 72.2 % of the items in the combined phenotype is detected. Conclusions: It is possible to reduce the list of ADHD symptoms with satisfactory levels of validity and not all the items should have the same weight when making diagnostic decisions.