Symptom prevalence of ADHD and ODD in a pediatric population in Argentina.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of DSM III-R symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) in an outpatient pediatric population; to compare oppositional behavior and grade retention rates; and to establish local means and standard deviations (SD) for the ADHD rating scale. METHOD: 300 children (149m, 151f; 6 to12 yrs) were evaluated for ADHD and ODD symptoms with the DuPaul and an author-designed rating scale, respectively. Scores 1.5 SD above the mean were considered positive for each disorder. RESULTS: A total of 27 subjects (13m, 14f), 9%, had positive scores consistent with ADHD. These children had an oppositional behavior rate of 33.3% and a grade retention rate of 30.7%. Those who did not have positive scores for ADHD had a rate of 5.5% and 7.3%, respectively. The mean scores for the boys on the ADHD rating scale was 17.1 (SD = 8.6); the girls had a mean of 14.7 (SD = 7.3). CONCLUSION: The prevalence rates in our study are similar to those found in other countries.