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PDFOpen Access (License Unspecified), Open Access
Thesis
How do clinicians decide whether or not to diagnose a comorbid anxiety disorder in children with ADHD?
Master of Science (M.S.), Drexel University
Apr 2010
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/etd-3283
Abstract
There is a debate in the literature today about the use of child report for diagnostic purposes between the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) literature where it is discounted as viable information and the child anxiety literature where it is seen as a necessary component for diagnosis. This study addresses the question of how child report is used in diagnosing co-occurring internalizing disorders in children with ADHD in a treatment center for the assessment and treatment of ADHD. This study was designed to assess the agreement between different sources of information used to diagnose childhood anxiety (parent structured interview, parent report questionnaire, teacher report questionnaire and child self-report questionnaire) and predict which information clinicians in an ADHD assessment and treatment center base diagnostic decisions on. Agreement between reporters was assessed between ADHD diagnostic groups and other possible moderating factors (age, gender, ethnicity, oppositional defiant diso der (ODD), and academic performance). The interactions between ADHD and each factor were also looked at. The Results showed low to moderate agreement across reporter pairs and groups. Children had especially low agreement with parents and teachers who agreed slightly better with one another. Clinician diagnosis was best predicted by the parent structured interview with child self report and teacher report adding significant but low predictive ability. When faced with multiple pieces of discrepant information, findings suggest that clinicians do base diagnostic decisions on multiple informants, but favor parent report.
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Details
- Title
- How do clinicians decide whether or not to diagnose a comorbid anxiety disorder in children with ADHD?
- Creators
- Richelle Ashley McGhee - DU
- Contributors
- Mary Spiers (Advisor) - Drexel University (1970-)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Master of Science (M.S.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences (Psychology); College of Arts and Sciences; Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 3283; 991014632069604721