Assess childhood abuse history and use trauma-informed assessment when students show ADHD-type problems, and screen children with abuse histories for ADHD¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 4 claims (4 for) · 1 study (1 associational), q3 · 1 of 1 report an effect size · 4 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The authors recommend that education and health care professionals assessing students with ADHD-type problems also assess childhood abuse history, and conversely that practitioners working with maltreated children be informed about the high association between abuse and ADHD symptomatology. They suggest that for children with histories of abuse it may be helpful to screen for ADHD in order to improve the treatment process and reduce wrongful treatment or diagnoses.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Practitioners able to conduct trauma-informed assessment and administer an ADHD screening measure such as the ASRS

Constraints¶

• The study is based on self-report and recall bias, and symptoms overlap with other disorders, so screening informs rather than replaces diagnosis

Target Learners¶

• students experiencing ADHD-type problems
• children and young adults with histories of abuse

Target Learning Goals¶

• accurate identification of ADHD-type difficulties and their possible trauma-related background to inform targeted support and treatment

Claims¶

• Abuse typology groups differed significantly on overall ADHD symptom scores, with only the non-abused group differing significantly from the three abuse groups in post hoc analysis [+W]
• The authors interpret the maltreatment–ADHD association as partly complicated by symptom overlap between ADHD and PTSD, which may make the two conditions difficult to distinguish [+W]
• In a national sample of young Danish adults, all three maltreatment latent classes showed significantly increased risk of probable ADHD relative to the non-abused class, strongest for the overall abuse class (OR=5.08), then emotional abuse (OR=3.09) and sexual abuse (OR=2.07) [+W]
• 14.5% of the sample scored above the ASRS cutoff for probable ADHD, and the overall abuse latent class was especially associated with ADHD symptoms (35.9% above cutoff vs 10.1% of the non-abused group) [+W]

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

-

Key Sources¶

• Sanderud K., Murphy S., Elklit A. (2016). Child maltreatment and ADHD symptoms in a sample of young adults. European Journal of Psychotraumatology. https://doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v7.32061