CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 390Attention Deficit Hyperactivity DisorderAutism Spectrum Disorder ResearchDevelopmental and Educational Neuropsychology

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 91 of the 92 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Diagnostic Controversies in Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

McGough, James J., Barkley, Russell A.·2004·American Journal of Psychiatry
DOI 10.1176/appi.ajp.161.11.1948
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: While it is increasingly recognized that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) persists into adulthood, there is no consensus on diagnostic criteria for adult ADHD. In this article the authors describe and contrast competing approaches for diagnosis of adult ADHD used in clinical and research practice. METHOD: The authors review the Wender Utah criteria, DSM criteria, and laboratory assessment strategies for adult ADHD. Advantages and disadvantages of each approach are described, and recommendations are made as a basis for clinical assessment and future research. RESULTS: Both the Wender Utah criteria and DSM-based approaches identify significantly impaired ADHD adults with neurocognitive, biological, and treatment response patterns similar to pediatric ADHD patients. The Wender Utah criteria established the need for retrospective childhood diagnosis and recognize developmental differences in adult symptom expression. The Wender Utah criteria fail to identify patients with predominantly inattentive symptoms, exclude some patients with significant comorbid psychopathology, and diverge significantly from the DSM conception of ADHD. The DSM criteria have never been validated in adults, do not include developmentally appropriate symptoms and thresholds for adults, and fail to identify some significantly impaired adults who are likely to benefit from treatment. There are insufficient scientific data to justify use of laboratory assessment measures, including neuropsychological tests and brain imaging, in diagnosing adult ADHD. CONCLUSIONS: Adult ADHD remains a clinical diagnosis. Clinicians should be flexible in application of the current ADHD criteria to adults. Additional research is required to validate adult diagnostic criteria.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1176/appi.ajp.161.11.1948

Cites

91 of 91 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Citations

Cites

Show all 92 references

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 301–390 of 390

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
McGough, J. J., & Barkley, R. A.
Affiliations
University of California, Los Angeles (US)
ORCID
Venue
American Journal of Psychiatry
Publisher
American Psychiatric Association Publishing
Published
2004-11-01
Volume
161
Issue
11
Pages
1948-1956
ISSN
  • 0002-953X (ISSN-L)
  • 1535-7228
DOI
10.1176/appi.ajp.161.11.1948
OpenAlex
W2164720019
Cited by
388
References
92
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 22 · 2015: 18 · 2014: 25 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 37
FWCI
13.57
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • American Journal of Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of Mental Health (K23MH001966, MH 01966)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Developmental and Educational Neuropsychology
Keywords
adult ADHD, ADHD diagnosis, diagnostic criteria, DSM diagnostic criteria, laboratory evaluation, neuropsychological assessment, neuroimaging, comorbid psychopathology
MeSH terms
Adult, Age Factors, Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity, Child, Electroencephalography, Humans, Neuropsychological Tests, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Psychometrics, Reproducibility of Results, Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review