A family study of psychiatric comorbidity in girls and boys with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
BACKGROUND
Because attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is relatively infrequent among girls, little is known about the nature and causes of psychiatric comorbidity in girls and the reason for gender differences in the prevalence of these comorbidities.


METHODS
Using blinded, structured psychiatric interviews, we studied two groups of boys: 140 ADHD probands and 120 non-ADHD comparisons. These groups had 454 and 368 first-degree biological relatives, respectively. We also studied two groups of girls: 140 ADHD probands and 122 non-ADHD comparisons. These groups had 417 and 369 first-degree biological relatives, respectively.


RESULTS
The co-occurrence of ADHD and comorbid psychopathology in families was the same for families ascertained through boy and girl probands.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that boys and girls do not differ in the familial risk factors that mediate comorbid psychopathology and the familial aggregation of comorbid disorders in ADHD families. Although this is consistent with prior work suggesting more similarities than differences in the nature of psychiatric comorbidity in ADHD boys and girls, we cannot make strong conclusions, owing to the possibility of cohort effects.
Faraone
S V
SV
Pediatric Psychopharmacology Unit, Child Psychiatry Service, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114-3139, USA.
Biederman
J
J
Mick
E
E
Doyle
A E
AE
Wilens
T
T
Spencer
T
T
Frazier
E
E
Mullen
K
K
D000293:Adolescent; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology; D010552:Personality Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors