Investigating late-onset ADHD: a population cohort investigation

Cooper, Miriam ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4695-5481, Hammerton, Gemma, Collishaw, Stephan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4296-820X, Langley, Kate ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2033-2657, Thapar, Ajay ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4589-8833, Dalsgaard, Soren, Stergiakouli, Evie, Tilling, Kate, Davey Smith, George, Maughan, Barbara, O'Donovan, Michael ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7073-2379, Thapar, Anita ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4589-8833 and Riglin, Lucy 2018. Investigating late-onset ADHD: a population cohort investigation. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 59 (10) , pp. 1105-1113. 10.1111/jcpp.12911

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Abstract

Adult ADHD has been assumed to be a continuation of childhood-onset ADHD. However, recent studies have identifies individuals with ADHD in adulthood who have not had ADHD in childhood. Whether or not these individuals have a 'typical' neurodevelopmental profile is not clear. Methods We tested two explanations for the emergence of apparent late-onset ADHD symptomatology using the ALSPAC epidemiological cohort, by grouping individuals according to their scores on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) hyperactivity subscale at ages 12 and 17 years. First, we tested whether some of those with apparent late-onset ADHD symptoms had been potentially misclassified on the basis of earlier SDQ hyperactivity scores (ages 7,8 and 9 years) or of subthreshold symptoms at age 12 years. Second, we investigated the possibility that those with 'genuine' late-onset ADHD symptoms, by investigating whether they had a similar profile if neurodevelopmental impairments (in the domains of autistic symptomatology, language, reading, spelling, executive functioning and IQ) as those with typical childhood-onset ADHD. Results N=56/75 (75%) of those with apparent late-onset ADHD had had high ADHD scores at at least one point in childhood, suggesting that they may have been misclassified on the basis of their score at age 12 years. The remaining 19 individuals (25%) with genuine late-onset ADHD symptoms did not show a profile of neurodevelopmental impairment typically seen in ADHD, instead showing similar levels of autistic symptoms, language skills, executive functioning ability and IQ to those without ADHD symptoms. The only exceptions were that this group showed reading and spelling problems at age 9 years. Conclusions Our work suggests that this small number of individuals with genuine late-onset symptoms may not be most appropriately considered as having typical neurodevelopmental disorder.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Medicine Psychology MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics (CNGG)
Publisher:	Wiley
ISSN:	0021-9630
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	19 March 2018
Date of Acceptance:	6 March 2018
Last Modified:	05 May 2023 23:23
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/109979

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