Trastorno por deficit de atención con hiperactividad

Salud Mental 2011;34:149-155
Conocimientos, creencias y actitudes en padres mexicanos acerca del TDAH

Conocimientos, creencias y actitudes en padres
mexicanos acerca del trastorno por déficit
de atención con hiperactividad (TDAH)
Lino Palacios-Cruz,1,3 Francisco de la Peña,2,3 Andrés Valderrama,4 Rodrigo Patiño,3
Silvia Pamela Calle Portugal,5 Rosa Elena Ulloa5
Artículo originalSUMMARY
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) generates controversy
among the general population on its diagnosis and treatment. This
could be explained by the sparse level of education about mental health,
which affects the parent´s knowledge and beliefs about this disorder.
ADHD is highly prevalent and 3-5% of school-age children can
be diagnosed. In Mexico it represents 1.5 millioncases. It represents
more than 30% of all cases in clinical pediatric settings.
The reports in health services have shown that the time gap
between symptoms identification and treatment is around 8 to 15
years. Moreover, only 25% of the affected children´s parents recognize
conduct or emotional problems on them and 13% receive mental
health care. Attention seeking has been associated withhigher severity
of the disorder and parent´s superior educational level.
Despite the advances in the research on neurobiology and
psychopharmacology, understanding of the social context that
surrounds the disorder is incomplete. Comparatively little is known
regarding how parents conceive the symptoms and causes of ADHD
and how these parental views may relate to children’s treatment.Understanding these factors is important due to the central role of
parents in selecting and accessing treatments and service providers
for children with ADHD.
For parents and children, getting information about ADHD is a
lottery that depends on which professional they see and what they
read or gather from television and the Internet. Mental health
professionals most give complete information toparents and children,
so risks and benefits of the different treatments may be considered
along with the family’s needs, values and cultural background.
A better understanding about the parent´s knowledge, beliefs
and attitudes regarding ADHD would help to improve the
communication mechanisms between mental health professionals
and parents during the treatment.
Objective
To describe theknowledge, beliefs and attitudes regarding ADHD in
Mexican parents.

1
2
3
4
5

Methods
The study was approved by the local investigation review board.
Informed consent was obtained and parents of children and
adolescents diagnosed with ADHD were recruited at four mental
health facilities (three public and one private) in two cities. Each parent
completed the questionnaire of knowledge andbeliefs about ADHD
(CASE ADHD, parent´s version). The questionnaire was created for
this study as an instrument with three versions: a) Parents, b) Teachers,
c) Health professionals. Results of parent´s version were included in
this report. This questionnaire incorporates information of other
instruments such as Barkley´s Evaluation Questionnaire and the one
used in the National ColombianSurvey for the Consensus of treatment
of ADHD 2008. CASE ADHD includes three parts: 1. An identification
record with the mother’s or father´s general data, 2. The ADHD Rating
Scale–IV, and 3. A 36 multiple choice questionnaire related to six
main areas: a) The caretaker report of symptoms and clinical
characteristics related with ADHD, b) The knowledge about ADHD,
c) The pathways to carereport, d) The Beliefs about ADHD treatment,
e) The professional mental health´s performance, and f) The parent´s
perceptions about ADHD. The questionnaire must be completed with
the assistance of a mental health professional. The average
application time is 30 minutes.
For statistical analysis central tendency measures were used;
as means, standard deviations and percentages.
Results
The...