THE FREQUENCY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF ADDITIONAL SELF-REPORTED PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSES IN CHILDREN WITH ATTENTION-DEFICIT DISORDER

The frequency of additional self-reported diagnoses in a large, heterogeneous sample of attention defiict disorder (ADD) children (N=182)was determined using the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents (DICA). Over half the children had additional DICA diagnoses, with oppositional disorder and anxiety/mood disorders the most frequent. ADD boys with internalizing-type diagnoses had lower verbal IQs and arithmetic scores and performed more poorly on attention tasks than those without; parents also rated them more adversely. Those with externalizing- type diagnoses were rated as more aggressive by teachers and had sociopathic, thrill- seeking profiles on paper-pencil self-ratings. Over 40% of the children were dyslexic or slow learners but they had no higher rate of DICA diagnoses than those who read adequately. © 1990 Plenum Publishing Corporation.