Children With ADHD And Co-Existing Psychiatric Disorders Report Impaired Quality Of Life

Pediatric patient self-reported Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) continues to be under studied, most notably in pediatric patients with ADHD and co-existing psychiatric disorders.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the measurement properties of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory™ (PedsQL™) 4.0 Generic Core Scales as a patient self-reported HRQOL measurement instrument in 179 pediatric patients with ADHD and physician-diagnosed co-morbid psychiatric disorders ages 5-18 years and 181 parents. The PedsQL™ demonstrated excellent measurement properties in this high risk population. Most notable, pediatric patients with ADHD and co-morbid psychiatric disorders and their parents reported significantly worse PedsQL™ scores than healthy children and pediatric patients with cancer and diabetes with the exception of physical health in which pediatric cancer patients demonstrated lower physical health.

Says Dr. James Varni, one of the study authors, "These findings highlight the profound negative impact of ADHD and co-existing psychiatric disorders on generic HRQOL, comparable to or worse than serious pediatric chronic physical diseases."

This will be discussed in a future issue of Value in Health, the official journal of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and outcomes Research.

Source:
ISPOR