Are pervasive developmental disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder distinct disorders?

doi:10.1016/j.braindev.2005.11.009

Brain and Development

Volume 28, Issue 6, July 2006, Pages 371-374

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.braindev.2005.11.009 Get rights and content

Abstract

We studied the relationship between patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and those with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), using the High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire (ASSQ) and ADHD Rating Scale-IV. The ASSQ scores of the PDD group and the ADHD group were significantly higher than the control group. Furthermore, the PDD group scored higher than the ADHD group. Both groups also showed higher scores than the control group in all three domains, that is, restricted and repetitive behavior, social interaction, and communication problem. The PDD and the ADHD group showed no significant difference in the domains of communication problem, and restricted and repetitive behavior. The PDD group had a higher score than the ADHD group only in the social interaction domain. In total score, inattention score, and hyperactivity/impulsivity score on the ADHD Rating Scale-IV, both groups were significantly higher than the control group. Between the ADHD and the PDD groups, there was no significant difference in the three scores. The patients with strictly diagnosed ADHD had many PDD-related symptoms, and the patients with PDD had many ADHD-related symptoms. It therefore seems difficult to make a distinction between ADHD and PDD by using the present diagnostic criteria in the DSM-IV. We should evaluate each patient in terms of both sets of criteria.

Section snippets

Subjects

The subjects were 35 children who had been referred to the outpatient clinic of the department of child neurology at Okayama University Hospital. Twenty of the 35 (19 boys and one girl; 5–15 years, mean: 9 years 4 months) were diagnosed as having ADHD. None of them met the DSM-IV criteria for PDD. The chief complaints of the initial visit were restlessness in 13 patients, distractibility in three, failure to develop peer relationships in two, ill-tempered in one, and forgetfulness in one. Of

Total score

The mean total score of the ASSQ was the highest in the PDD group (21.7), next highest in the ADHD group (14.8), and lowest in the control group (4.3). Using the Kruskal–Wallis test, we noted significant differences in the ASSQ total scores (P<0.001) of the three groups. A multiple comparison revealed significant differences between the ADHD group and the control group (P<0.001), the ADHD group and the PDD group (P=0.016), and the PDD group and the control group (P<0.001). The ADHD group lay

Discussion

According to the DSM-IV criteria for ADHD, PDD is placed in the exclusion criteria of ADHD. In this study, the subjects who had PDD, according to the DSM-IV criteria, were excluded from the ADHD group. However, the ASSQ total score in the ADHD group was higher than in the control group. Moreover, all three domain-specific scores (social interaction, communication problem, and restricted and repetitive behavior) were higher in the ADHD group than in the control group. In the ADHD group, every

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In total score of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity on the ADHD Rating Scale-IV, both groups were higher than controls. Patients strictly diagnosed with ADHD had many PDD-related symptoms, and the patients with PDD had many ADHD symptoms (Hattori et al., 2006). It therefore seems difficult to make a distinction between ADHD and PDD by using present diagnostic criteria in the DSM-IV.
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Original articleAre pervasive developmental disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder distinct disorders?

Abstract

Section snippets

Subjects

Total score

Discussion

Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorder

Text revision

Theory of mind and emotion–recognition functioning in autistic spectrum disorders and in psychiatric control and normal children

Dev Psychopathol

Manual for the child behavior checklist/4-18 and profile

Standardization of the Japanese version of the child behavior checklist/4-18

Psychiatr Neurol Pediatr Jpn

Original article
Are pervasive developmental disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder distinct disorders?