title: Prevalence of epilepsy and attention-deficit hyperactivity (ADHD) disorder: a population-based study.
abstract: Epilepsy and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were reported to co-occur at rates higher than expected for coincidental findings. This study investigated the prevalence of both disorders in community-based primary care practice. The central database of the second-largest health maintenance organization in Israel was searched for all children aged 6 to 13 years (n = 284 419; 51.5% males) diagnosed as having ADHD according to the physicians' records and/or the filling of at least 10 prescriptions for antiepileptic medications according to pharmacy records. The prevalence of epilepsy in the total population was 5 out of 1000 children, and the prevalence of ADHD was 12.6%. More than one-fourth (27.7%) of the epileptic children were also diagnosed as having ADHD. On multivariate analysis, children with ADHD had almost twice the risk of epilepsy than children without ADHD. This study supports hospital-based findings of a strong interrelationship between ADHD and epilepsy. The high rate of ADHD in Israeli children warrants further investigation.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pediatric Neurology and the Epilepsy Center, Petach Tikva, Israel.
authors.forename: Rony
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: Yehuda
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Senecky
authors.forename: Avinoam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shuper
authors.forename: Dov
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Inbar
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chodick
authors.forename: Varda
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Shalev
authors.forename: Raanan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Raz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D018672:Community Health Planning; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors