Outpatient screening of Japanese children with epilepsy for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD).

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.