[Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults].
The author summarizes the epidemiology of adult ADHD and its main psychiatric comorbidities, as well as the natural history of the disorder, and emphasizes some of its clinical specificities and insists on the importance of diagnosing this disorder in adulthood.
Abstract
Numerous clinical investigations and recent epidemiological studies firmly established the persistence of ADHD into adulthood. To diagnose ADHD in adults could nevertheless be a difficult task, owing to some peculiarities of its symptomatic presentation and to its frequent association with other psychiatric disorders. In adulthood, disorders of executive functions and self-regulation processes certainly play a major role in symptoms presentation, but this aspect should still be clinically validated. The author briefly reviews the epidemiology of adult ADHD and its main psychiatric comorbidities, as well as the natural history of the disorder. He emphasizes some of its clinical specificities and insists on the importance of diagnosing this disorder in adulthood.