R Donfrancesco1, M Innocenzi2, A Marano3, J Biederman4. 1. ASL RM B Sandro Pertini Hospital Rome, Italy. 2. ASL RM B Rome, Italy. 3. University Sapienza, Rome, Italy assunta.marano@uniroma1.it. 4. Yawkey Center for Outpatient Care, Boston, MA, USA.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: A unique profile of the empirically derived Child Behavior Checklist-anxious/depressed, attention, and aggression-deficient emotional self-regulation (CBCL-AAA-DESR profile: ≥180 and ≤210) may be used to identify a sizable minority of children with ADHD with associated DESR. The main aim of this study was to replicate these findings in an Italian sample. METHOD: The sample consisted of 358 children and teenagers aged 6 to 17 years of both sexes with (n = 190) and without a diagnosis of ADHD (n = 168). RESULTS: In all, 40.0% of children with ADHD had a positive CBCL-DESR profile compared with 3.5% of controls. Receiver-operating characteristic analysis showed that the CBCL-DESR profile cut-off (sensitivity = 97.33, specificity = 79.66, criterion ≥179, ≤210) discriminated the two subsamples. CONCLUSION: The findings replicate previous results highlighting the utility of the CBCL as a means of identifying DESR in children with ADHD.
OBJECTIVE: A unique profile of the empirically derived Child Behavior Checklist-anxious/depressed, attention, and aggression-deficient emotional self-regulation (CBCL-AAA-DESR profile: ≥180 and ≤210) may be used to identify a sizable minority of children with ADHD with associated DESR. The main aim of this study was to replicate these findings in an Italian sample. METHOD: The sample consisted of 358 children and teenagers aged 6 to 17 years of both sexes with (n = 190) and without a diagnosis of ADHD (n = 168). RESULTS: In all, 40.0% of children with ADHD had a positive CBCL-DESR profile compared with 3.5% of controls. Receiver-operating characteristic analysis showed that the CBCL-DESR profile cut-off (sensitivity = 97.33, specificity = 79.66, criterion ≥179, ≤210) discriminated the two subsamples. CONCLUSION: The findings replicate previous results highlighting the utility of the CBCL as a means of identifying DESR in children with ADHD.