Trastorno por deficit de la atencion

Salud Mental 2009;32:S55-S62 Cuestionario para Escolares y Adolescentes Latinoamericanos con TDAH

Cuestionario para Escolares y Adolescentes Latinoamericanos con Trastorno por Déficit de Atencióncon Hiperactividad (CEAL-TDAH). Construcción, descripción del instrumento y datos sociodemográficos y clínicos de la muestra
Comité Internacional para el Desarrollo y Estudio del Cuestionario paraEscolares y Adolescentes Latinoamericanos con Trastorno por Déficit de Atención con Hiperactividad (CEAL-TDAH)*

SUMMARY
Introduction Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of themost common neuropsychiatric disorders. The current prevalence of the disorder in pediatric population has been estimated around 5.29% worldwide. ADHD is a lifelong illness with different manifestationsduring childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Untreated ADHD generates a great dysfunction in several domains, including school and work performance, family, and peer relationships. Because of thehigh prevalence and dysfunction linked to the disorder, there is a need to use severity checklists and screening instruments. Some of the dimensional scales used to evaluate ADHD are: The Child BehaviorChecklist and the Brief Psychiatry Rating Scale for Children and Adolescents, both translated and validated in Spanish. The severity scales most commonly used are the Conners Scales and some otherslike the Teachers Rating Scale from the Hospital Psiquiatrico Infantil in Mexico and several checklists derived from the 18 symptoms of the DSM, including the Argentine SNAP-IV version. Some screeninginstruments had been used in epidemiological searching of ADHD symptoms. Objectives To design an screening instrument for ADHD suitable for the evaluation of Latin American school age children andadolescents, and describe the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of the sample used for its evaluation.

Methods The construction of the instrument was carried out by an expert panel,...