Cited by 837Attention Deficit Hyperactivity DisorderMental Health Treatment and AccessChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 66 of the 66 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 13 of the 43 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

The descriptive epidemiology of DSM-IV Adult ADHD in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys

Open access
on behalf of the WHO World Mental Health Survey Collaborators, Fayyad, John, Sampson, Nancy A., Hwang, Irving, Adamowski, Tomasz, Aguilar-Gaxiola, Sergio, Al-Hamzawi, Ali, Andrade, Laura H. S. G., Borges, Guilherme, de Girolamo, Giovanni, Florescu, Silvia, Gureje, Oye, Haro, Josep Maria, Hu, Chiyi, Karam, Elie G., Lee, Sing, Navarro-Mateu, Fernando, O’Neill, Siobhan, Pennell, Beth-Ellen, Piazza, Marina, Posada-Villa, José, ten Have, Margreet, Torres, Yolanda, Xavier, Miguel, Zaslavsky, Alan M., Kessler, Ronald C.·2017·ADHD Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorders

Abstract

We previously reported on the cross-national epidemiology of ADHD from the first 10 countries in the WHO World Mental Health (WMH) Surveys. The current report expands those previous findings to the 20 nationally or regionally representative WMH surveys that have now collected data on adult ADHD. The Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) was administered to 26,744 respondents in these surveys in high-, upper-middle-, and low-/lower-middle-income countries (68.5% mean response rate). Current DSM-IV/CIDI adult ADHD prevalence averaged 2.8% across surveys and was higher in high (3.6%)- and upper-middle (3.0%)- than low-/lower-middle (1.4%)-income countries. Conditional prevalence of current ADHD averaged 57.0% among childhood cases and 41.1% among childhood subthreshold cases. Adult ADHD was significantly related to being male, previously married, and low education. Adult ADHD was highly comorbid with DSM-IV/CIDI anxiety, mood, behavior, and substance disorders and significantly associated with role impairments (days out of role, impaired cognition, and social interactions) when controlling for comorbidities. Treatment seeking was low in all countries and targeted largely to comorbid conditions rather than to ADHD. These results show that adult ADHD is prevalent, seriously impairing, and highly comorbid but vastly under-recognized and undertreated across countries and cultures.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1007/s12402-016-0208-3

Cites

66 of 66 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

51 Own result · 19 Own interpretation · 17 No full text of the sources · 17 Own method · 10 No basis given · 5 Partly supported · 4 Supported · 3 Sources not found · 3 Not checked yet · 1 Supported so far · accuracy not yet measured

Show all 72 claims

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 26
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 42
58 of 58
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    The association between CIDI responses and clinical diagnoses is constant across countries.

    “This approach implicitly assumes that the association between CIDI responses and clinical diagnoses is constant across countries.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Existing epidemiological studies vary widely in measures, classification systems, and data collection procedures, making cross-national comparison challenging.

    “A challenge in comparing cross-national results, though, is that existing epidemiological studies vary widely in measures, classification systems, and data collection procedures.”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    The population to which results are extrapolated is equivalent to the population in which the imputation was calibrated.

    “under the model when, as in our case, AUC is high and the population to which results are extrapolated are equivalent to the population in which the imputation was calibrated”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Respondents 45 years and older may not recall symptoms that they experienced in childhood.

    “The restriction on the age range was imposed based on a concern about the effects of recall bias among older respondents whereby respondents 45 years and older may not recall symptoms that they experienced in childhood.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Retrospective reports of childhood ADHD symptoms are sufficiently accurate to estimate childhood ADHD prevalence and persistence.

    “Another limitation of the current study is that childhood ADHD was assessed retrospectively”
    “recall bias could lead to underreporting the number of childhood ADHD symptoms”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    CIDI diagnoses are valid across all WMH countries.

    “all diagnoses were based on fully structured lay diagnostic interviews rather than semi-structured clinical research diagnostic interviews”
    “these clinical reappraisal interviews were administered only in a minority of WMH countries”
6 of 6

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2 of 2

Citations

Cites

Show all 64 references

Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. Adler L, Spencer T (2004) The Adult ADHD Clinical Diagnostic Scale (ACDS), version 1.2. New York University School of Medicine, New York
  2. First M, Spitzer R, Gibbon M, Williams J (2002) Structured clinical interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders, Research Version, Non-patient Edition (SCID-I/NP). Biometrics Research, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York
  3. SAS Institute Inc (2008) SAS Software Version 9.2. SAS Institute Inc., Cary
  4. Sawilowsky S, Musial JL (1988) Modeling ADHD exponential decay. The ADHD Report 1988. 6(1):10–11

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Metadata

Authors
Collaborators, O. B. O. T. W. W. M. H. S., Fayyad, J., Sampson, N. A., Hwang, I., Adamowski, T., Aguilar-Gaxiola, S., Al-Hamzawi, A., Andrade, L. H. S. G., Borges, G., de Girolamo, G., Florescu, S., Gureje, O., Haro, J. M., Hu, C., Karam, E. G., Lee, S., Navarro-Mateu, F., O’Neill, S., Pennell, B.-E., Piazza, M., Posada-Villa, J., ten Have, M., Torres, Y., Xavier, M., Zaslavsky, A. M., & Kessler, R. C.
Affiliations
  • Institute for Development, Research, Advocacy and Applied Care (LB)
  • Harvard University (US)
  • Wroclaw Medical University (PL)
  • Universidade de São Paulo (BR)
  • Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli (IT)
  • University College Hospital, Ibadan (NG)
  • Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (ES)
  • University of Balamand (LB)
  • Chinese University of Hong Kong (HK)
  • University of Ulster (GB)
  • University of Michigan (US)
  • Universidad El Bosque (CO)
  • Universidad CES (CO)
Corresponding author
Fayyad, John
Venue
ADHD Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorders
Published
2016-11-19
Volume
9
Issue
1
Pages
47-65
ISSN
  • 1866-6116 (ISSN-L)
  • 1866-6647
OpenAlex
W2555957564
Cited by
824
References
64
Citations by year
2026: 69 · 2025: 95 · 2024: 136 · 2023: 127 · 2022: 101 · 2021: 84 · 2020: 95 · 2019: 64 · 2018: 28 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 1
FWCI
34.03
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • ADHD Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorders (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • Repositori digital de la UPF (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) (acceptedVersion)
  • Repositorio Institucional Universidad El Bosque (submittedVersion)
  • The Research Repository @ WVU (West Virginia University) (submittedVersion)
  • IRIS UNIMORE (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Ulster University Research Portal (Ulster University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • RECERCAT (Consorci de Serveis Universitaris de Catalunya) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia Institutional Repository (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Funders
  • National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH070884)
  • John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
  • U.S. Public Health Service (R13-MH066849, R01-MH069864, R01 DA016558)
  • Fogarty International Center (FIRCA R03-TW006481)
  • Pan American Health Organization
  • Eli Lilly and Company
  • Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical
  • GlaxoSmithKline
  • Bristol-Myers Squibb
  • Pfizer Foundation
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Mental Health Treatment and Access
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
Keywords
adult ADHD, prevalence, cross-national comparison, DSM-IV, Composite International Diagnostic Interview, comorbidities, role impairment, treatment seeking, childhood ADHD, subthreshold ADHD, income level, gender differences, educational attainment, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, substance use disorders, behavior disorders
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity, Mental Disorders, Developing Countries, Female, Health Surveys, Humans, Income, Male, Patient Acceptance of Health Care, Risk Factors, World Health Organization, Comorbidity, Prevalence, Developed Countries, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Young Adult

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