Clinical characteristics of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in African American children.
OBJECTIVE
The authors' goal was to explore the nature of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in African American children, which has received scant attention by psychiatric researchers.


METHODS
Subjects were 19 African American children with DSM-III-R ADHD and 24 African American children without ADHD. Ethnically sensitive methods were used to evaluate the children comprehensively. The findings were compared with those from an earlier study of Caucasian children with ADHD.


RESULTS
African American children with ADHD had higher levels of psychiatric disorders other than ADHD than did African American children who did not have ADHD.


CONCLUSIONS
Among African American children, ADHD may be characterized by a narrower pattern of psychiatric comorbidity and dysfunction than has been observed in Caucasians. Given the small number of subjects studied, these findings are preliminary and must be replicated to confirm their validity.
Samuel
V J
VJ
Pediatric Psychopharmacology Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston 02114-3139, USA.
Biederman
J
J
Faraone
S V
SV
George
P
P
Mick
E
E
Thornell
A
A
Curtis
S
S
Taylor
A
A
Brome
D
D
D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000367:Age Factors; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D015897:Comorbidity; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data