CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 273Attention Deficit Hyperactivity DisorderChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentDevelopmental and Educational Neuropsychology

Changes in the definition of ADHD in DSM-5: subtle but important

Open access
Epstein, Jeffery N, Loren, Richard EA·2013·Neuropsychiatry
DOI 10.2217/npy.13.59PMC PMC3955126
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

While there were earlier descriptions of children with high levels of activity and impulsivity , what is now called ADHD first appeared in the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM‑II in 1968. In DSM‑II, the disorder was termed hyperkinetic reaction of childhood, which as the name implies focused primarily on symptoms of excessive motor activity. With the publication of DSM‑III in 1980, the disorder was markedly reconceptualized with a focus on problems with attention, impulsivity and hyperactivity, and was renamed attention deficit disorder (with and without hyperactivity).

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.2217/npy.13.59

Cites

17 of 17 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

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?

  • In DSM-V, the spread of the disease is defined as the presence of two or more symptoms of the stated criteria.

    “Previously, the spread of the disease was determined by reviewing the symptoms of the disorder, which in the DSM-V is defined as the presence of two or more symptoms of the stated criteria.”

    From The global prevalence of ADHD in children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2023) · cites this paper as [80]

    In “Changes in the Definition of ADHD in DSM-5” (page not provided), the paper says the pervasiveness criterion requires evidence of symptoms in two or more settings, not the presence of two or more symptoms. It separately reports a minimum of five symptoms in either domain for older adolescents and adults. (LLM, conf=0.90)

    Checked by a reasoning model — may be wrong.

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • The rise in the number of patients diagnosed with ADHD based on DSM-V diagnostic criteria is reasonable.

    “In light of these circumstances, the rise in the number of patients diagnosed with ADHD based on DSM-V diagnostic criteria is reasonable [80].”

    From The global prevalence of ADHD in children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2023) · cites this paper as [80]

    In the main text, Epstein and Loren explain that the more inclusive DSM-5 criteria may increase the number of children meeting diagnostic criteria and that ADHD prevalence rates may increase. This makes a rise plausible, but the paper does not establish that the number of diagnosed patients has risen; it frames the increase as a possibility. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • The DSM-V diagnostic criteria were very similar to the DSM-IV.

    “The DSM-V diagnostic criteria were very similar to the DSM-IV.”

    From The global prevalence of ADHD in children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2023) · cites this paper as [80]

    In “Changes in the Definition of ADHD in DSM-5: Subtle but Important,” the paper says DSM-5 retained the ADHD symptom domains and 18 core symptoms, producing a phenotype highly similar to DSM-IV’s. It addresses ADHD criteria specifically, not DSM-5 diagnostic criteria generally, and describes several important changes to those criteria. (LLM, conf=0.82)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • The prevalence and disorder definitions in DSM-V differ from those in DSM-IV.

    “However, the prevalence and disorder definitions in DSM-V differ from those in DSM-IV.”

    From The global prevalence of ADHD in children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2023) · cites this paper as [80]

    In “Changes in the Definition of ADHD in DSM-5: Subtle but Important” (page not supplied), the paper lists differences between DSM-IV and DSM-5 ADHD diagnostic criteria. It says ADHD prevalence rates may increase, not that prevalence has been shown to differ, and it does not address disorder definitions generally. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. [2]American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders 1968 Author Washington, D.C. 2nd edition (DSM-II)
  2. [3]American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders 1980 Author Washington, D.C. 3rd edition (DSM-III)
  3. [4]American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders 1987 Author Washington, DC. 3rd edition revised (DSM-3-R)

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Epstein, J. N., & Loren, R. E.
Affiliations
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (US)
ORCID
Venue
Neuropsychiatry
Publisher
OMICS Publishing Group
Published
2013-10
Volume
3
Issue
5
Pages
455-458
ISSN
1758-2008 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.2217/npy.13.59
PMC
PMC3955126
OpenAlex
W2057166186
Cited by
273
References
17
Citations by year
2026: 29 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 38 · 2023: 48 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 28 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 1
FWCI
1.19
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Neuropsychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of Mental Health (K24MH064478)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Developmental and Educational Neuropsychology
Keywords
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, DSM-5, diagnostic classification, hyperkinetic disorder, attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity, impulsivity, DSM-III, DSM-II

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