ABSTRACT

Diagnosis The primary feature of ADHD is extreme and maladaptive levels of motor activity. It is the most common neurobehavioral disorder of childhood; the worldwide prevalence of ADHD is estimated at 2.2% for boys and 0.7% for girls, using Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, (DSM) or International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) diagnostic criteria (Erskine et al., 2013). ADHD has been recognized in the psychiatric literature since the mid-19th century, although there has been long-standing

Symptoms of common mental disorders in children and adolescents have been conceptually organized into two broad dimensions. One dimension, which is the focus of the current chapter, has been labeled as undercontrolled or externalizing and includes various acting out, disruptive, delinquent, hyperactive, and aggressive behaviors. The second dimension has been labeled as overcontrolled or internalizing and includes such behaviors as social withdrawal, anxiety, and depression (see Sander & Ollendick, Chapter 20 in this volume). The distinction between internalizing and externalizing problems is well supported by a number of factor analytic studies (Achenbach, 1995; Lahey et al., 2008).