Abstract

REATEGUI VILLEGAS, Diego Artemio  and  VARGAS MURGA, Horacio. Depressive symptoms in patients with Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. . Rev Med Hered [online]. 2008, vol.19, n.3, pp.96-101. ISSN 1018-130X.

Objectives: To determine the frequency of depressive symptoms in patients between 7 and 17 years diagnosed of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and determine the association between depressive symptoms with age, sex and psychiatric comorbidity. Material and Method: A descriptive, cross sectional study was made. Patients diagnosed of ADHD of the Specialized Institute of Mental Health Hideyo Noguchi were recruited from February 2006 until completion of size sample. Children´s depression inventory (CDI) was applied. It was considered a cutoff point of 15 to define the presence of depressive disorder. We analyzed the following variables: age, sex, psychiatric comorbidity and depressive symptoms. Results: 64 (85.3%) were men, 35/75 patients (46.7%) obtained scores of 15 or more in the CDI. We did not find association between depressive symptoms and sex or age. The most frequent depressive symptom was related to school performance (65.3%). There were only 6 patients with other comorbidity. Conclusion: There is a very high frequence of depressive symptoms in children diagnosed with ADHD, there should be more studies made to analyse association between these two clinical entities. (Rev Med Hered 2008;19:96-101)

Keywords : Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder; depressive symptoms; comorbidity.

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