title: Outpatient screening of Japanese children with epilepsy for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD).
abstract: The significance of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) score for AD/HD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) screening was assessed in Japanese epileptic children.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixty-eight epileptic children were enrolled in this study. Parents were asked to fill out both the SDQ and AD/HD-rating scale (AD/HD-RS) simultaneously.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The SDQ subscale of hyperactivity showed the highest score. The AD/HD-RS showed higher scores for both inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity. Twenty-two (32.4%) of these subjects were diagnosed as having AD/HD. The SDQ subscale for hyperactivity showed 86.4% sensitivity and 95% specificity, respectively, for detection of AD/HD. All SDQ subscales correlated significantly with inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity scores of the AD/HD-RS.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The SDQ is a good screening tool which can contribute to the detection of AD/HD, not only of the hyperactive/impulsive but also the inattentive subtype. Furthermore, the SDQ can elucidate more complicated behavioral problems than the core symptoms of AD/HD that are not noticed in the epilepsy clinic.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Neurology, Tanabe-Kadobayashi Children's Clinic, Japan. Electronic address: tanakado-neuro.2010@wave.zaq.ne.jp.
authors.forename: Takuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tanabe
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Hirakata Municipal Hospital, Japan.
authors.forename: Mitsuru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kashiwagi
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Osaka Medical College, Japan.
authors.forename: Shuichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shimakawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Osaka Medical College, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tamai
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Faculty of Nursing and Rehabilitations, Aino University, Japan.
authors.forename: Eiji
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wakamiya
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000150:complications* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010045:Outpatients; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
keywords: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD); Children; Epilepsy; Screening; Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)