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Objective: The Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Rating Scale-IV (ADHD-RS-IV) assesses ADHD symptoms in children and adolescents. The original United States norms comprise percentiles. Yet, no Nordic percentile norms exist, and only T-scores, which (often falsely) assume normally distributed data, are currently available. Here, we for the first time provide Danish percentile norms for children aged 6-9 based on parent/caregiver-reports, and illustrate the potential consequences of T-scores when derived based on the expected skewed distribution of an ADHD scale in the population., Materials and Methods: The sample comprised 1895 Danish schoolchildren (879 girls and 1016 boys) in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd grade from the general population. Their parents/caregivers completed the ADHD-RS-IV. Sex and age differences were investigated, percentiles were derived based on the observed score distributions, and for comparison, T-scores > 70 were estimated, which are expected to identify the top 2.3% under the assumption of normality., Results: Boys were rated to have higher ADHD-RS-IV scores than girls except on the impulsivity score. No age effects were found on the majority of scores. Sex-stratified and unisex percentiles (80, 90, 93, 98) were reported. The distribution of ADHD-RS-IV scores were highly skewed. T-score cutoffs identified a significantly higher proportion of and about twice as many children as having elevated ADHD symptoms than expected (4.3-5.2% vs . 2.3%)., Conclusions: ADHD-RS-IV (parent/caregiver-report) percentile norms for young Danish schoolchildren are now available for future reference. The use of percentiles is considered appropriate given the skewed score distribution and since T-scores appear to over-identify children as having clinically elevated ADHD symptoms.

The concept of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is considered to have cross-cultural validity, but direct comparisons of its psychological characteristics across cultures are limited. This study investigates whether preschool children's ADHD symptoms expressed in two cultures with different views about child behaviour and parenting, Hong Kong and the UK, show the same pattern of associations with their waiting-related abilities and reactions, an important marker of early self-regulation. A community sample of 112 preschoolers (mean age = 46.22 months; 55 from UK, 57 from HK) completed three tasks measuring different waiting elements - waiting for rewards, choosing the amount of time to wait, and having to wait unexpectedly when a task is interrupted. Participants' waiting-related behavioural and emotional reactions were coded. Parents rated their children's ADHD symptoms and delay aversion. Our findings revealed that the associations between ADHD symptoms and waiting-related responses were comparable in both UK and HK samples. This suggests that the core psychological characteristics of ADHD, particularly in relation to waiting behaviours, may exhibit similarity across cultural contexts. Future research can extend this cross-cultural analysis to other ADHD-related psychological domains and explore additional cultural settings., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Objective: The question of whether attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a discrete category or a continuous dimension remains clinically relevant. We report the first examination of this question from the viewpoint of the relationship between ADHD traits and psychosocial quality of life (QoL), and whether the level of QoL declines markedly around a certain high ADHD trait range suggestive of a categorical boundary., Methods: Parents/caregivers of 1,967 schoolchildren aged 6 to 11 from the general population completed the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory and the ADHD-Rating Scale IV. Piecewise linear and non-linear regression analyses were performed., Results: No evidence for a non-linear association or an abrupt change in the rate of decrease in QoL was observed in the high end of the ADHD traits continuum. Instead, the relationship was consistent with linearity., Conclusion: Psychosocial QoL gradually declines in a linear manner as ADHD trait levels increase providing further support for a dimensional model., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: PHT has received speaker’s fee from Medice and Shire within the last 3 years. ES-B has received speaker’s fee from Shire, QBTech, and Medice, has served as consultant to Neurotech Solutions, and has received research support from QBTech within the last 3 years. SDØ received the 2020 Lundbeck Foundation Young Investigator Prize. Furthermore, SDØ owns/has owned units of mutual funds with stock tickers DKIGI, IAIMWC, and WEKAFKI, and has owned units of exchange traded funds with stock tickers BATE, TRET, QDV5, QDVH, QDVE, SADM, IQQH, USPY, EXH2, 2B76, and EUNL. AV has received speaker’s fee from Medice, Takeda, and AGB-Pharma within the last 3 years. TWA and RL declare that they have no conflicts of interests.

Background: The Quick Delay Questionnaire (QDQ) is a short questionnaire designed to assess delay-related difficulties in adults. This study aimed to examine the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the QDQ (C-QDQ) in Chinese adults, and explore the ecological characteristics of delay-related impulsivity in Chinese adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)., Methods: Data was collected from 302 adults, including ADHD (n = 209) and healthy controls (HCs) (n = 93). All participants completed the C-QDQ. The convergent validity, internal consistency, retest reliability and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the C-QDQ were analyzed. The correlations between C-QDQ and two laboratory measures of delay-related difficulties and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 (BIS-11), the comparison of C-QDQ scores between ADHD subgroups and HCs were also analyzed., Results: The Cronbach's α of C-QDQ was between 0.83 and 0.89. The intraclass correlation coefficient of C-QDQ was between 0.80 and 0.83. The results of CFA of C-QDQ favoured the original two-factor model (delay aversion and delay discounting). Significant positive associations were found between C-QDQ scores and BIS-11 total score and performance on the laboratory measure of delay-related difficulties. Participants with ADHD had higher C-QDQ scores than HCs, and female ADHD reported higher scores on delay discounting subscale than male. ADHD-combined type (ADHD-C) reported higher scores on delay aversion subscale than ADHD-inattention type (ADHD-I)., Conclusion: The C-QDQ is a valid and reliable tool to measure delay-related responses that appears to have clinical utility. It can present the delay-related impulsivity of patients with ADHD. Compared to HCs, the level of reward-delay impulsivity was higher in ADHD., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Researchers continue to count the short- and longer-term mental health costs for children and adolescents of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated exceptional restrictions imposed by governments on their lives in an attempt to control the pandemic and its impacts. Despite being at low risk of serious physical illness from COVID-19 themselves, some studies have reported a decline in the mental health of many young people during the pandemic. Some have suggested that this could even create a risk for long-term morbidity. In this commentary, we reflect on the excellent article by Rask and colleagues on paediatric health anxiety and consider key research gaps for the field in general and for the specific challenges and questions posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and its legacy., (© 2024 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.)

Background: There are increasing calls for neurodivergent peoples' involvement in research into neurodevelopmental conditions. So far, however, this has tended to be achieved only through membership of external patient and public involvement (PPI) panels. The Regulating Emotions - Strengthening Adolescent Resilience (RE-STAR) programme is building a new participatory model of translational research that places young people with diagnoses of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism at the heart of the research team so that they can contribute to shaping and delivering its research plan., Aims: To outline the principles on which the RE-STAR participatory model is based and describe its practical implementation and benefits, especially concerning the central role of members of the Youth Researcher Panel (Y-RPers)., Method: The model presented is a culmination of a 24-month process during which Y-RPers moved from advisors to co-researchers integrated within RE-STAR. It is shaped by the principles of co-intentionality. The account here was agreed following multiple iterative cycles of collaborative discussion between academic researchers, Y-RPers and other stakeholders., Results: Based on our collective reflections we offer general guidance on how to effectively integrate young people with diagnoses of ADHD and/or autism into the core of the translational research process. We also describe the specific theoretical, methodological and analytical benefits of Y-RPer involvement in RE-STAR., Conclusions: Although in its infancy, RE-STAR has demonstrated the model's potential to enrich translational science in a way that can change our understanding of the relationship between autism, ADHD and mental health. When appropriately adapted we believe the model can be applied to other types of neurodivergence and/or mental health conditions.

Objective: Short-term RCTs have demonstrated that MPH-treatment significantly reduces ADHD-symptoms, but is also associated with adverse events, including sleep problems. However, data on long-term effects of MPH on sleep remain limited., Methods: We performed a 2-year naturalistic prospective pharmacovigilance multicentre study. Participants were recruited into three groups: ADHD patients intending to start MPH-treatment (MPH-group), those not intending to use ADHD-medication (no-MPH-group), and a non-ADHD control-group. Sleep problems were assessed with the Children's-Sleep-Habits-Questionnaire (CSHQ)., Results: 1,410 participants were enrolled. Baseline mean CSHQ-total-sleep-scores could be considered clinically significant for the MPH-group and the no-MPH-group, but not for controls. The only group to show a significant increase in any aspect of sleep from baseline to 24-months was the control-group. Comparing the MPH- to the no-MPH-group no differences in total-sleep-score changes were found., Conclusion: Our findings support that sleep-problems are common in ADHD, but don't suggest significant negative long-term effects of MPH on sleep., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: AH has received compensation for serving as consultant or speaker for Shire–Takeda and Medice, unrelated to this work. KKCM reports grants from the CW Maplethorpe Fellowship, the UK National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the EU Horizon 2020 Framework, and the Hong Kong Research Grant Council, and personal fees from IQVIA Holdings, outside the submitted work. JB has been in the past 3 years a consultant, member of advisory board, or speaker for Takeda–Shire, Roche, Medice, Angelini, Janssen, and Servier. SC reports collaboration on projects from the EU Seventh Framework Programme and on clinical trials sponsored by Shire Pharmaceutical Company, Lundbeck, Otsuka, Janssen-Cilag, and Angelini. MD has received research funding from Takeda–Shire, outside the submitted work. RWD—For the past 3 years, he has no conflicts of interest to report. As a former company employee, he has been a stock holder of Eli Lilly & Co. BF has been a consultant or speaker for Abbvie, Actelion, Allergan, Almirall, Alnylam, Amgen, Astellas, Astrazeneca, Bayer, Biogen, Biopecs, Bioproject, Biotronik, BMS, Boehringer, Celgène, Daiichi-Sankyio, Ethypharm, Forestlab, Genevrier, Genzyme, Gilead, Grünenthal, GSK, Idorsia, IMS, Indivior, IQVIA, JNJ, Léo, Lilly, Lundbeck, Menarini, MSD, Novartis, Novonordisk, Otsuka, Pfizer, Pierre-Frabre, Recordati, Roche, SANOFI, Servier, Takeda, UCB, ViiV, and Wellmera. CH reports research funding from the NIHR including the Health Technology Assessment SATURN trial (grant ref: NIHR128472) comparing MPH with guanfacine for children and young people with ADHD and tics. CH was chair of the NICE Guideline (CG155) for psychosis and schizophrenia in children and young people; member of the NICE ADHD Guideline Update committee (NG87) and is a member of Eunethydis and the European ADHD Guideline Group. SM reports speaker’s fee, travel support, and research support from Shire, outside the submitted work. AN reports research funding from the EU, the German Ministry of Health, and the German Federal Joint Committee, outside the submitted work. PN has been a consultant or speaker for Medice, Servier, and Egis Pharmaceuticals, outside the submitted work. ER received speaker’s fee and travel support from Shire, outside the submitted work. ESB has received in the last 3 years speakers fees from Takeda and Medice and research support from QBTech. AZ served in an advisory or consultancy role for Angelini, EduPharma, Servier; received conference support or speaker’s fee from Angelini and Janssen; participated in clinical trials conducted by Angelini, Janssen, Lundbeck, Otsuka, Roche, Servier, and Shire; and received royalties from Giunti OS and Oxford University Press. ICKW reports research and educational funding from Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Janssen, Bayer, GSK, Novartis, Takeda, the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, the Hong Kong Health and Medical Research Fund, the Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Commission, the NIHR, the EU, and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, and the expert testimony payment from the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal; outside the submitted work. DC reports, in the past 3 years, a consultant, member of advisory board, or speaker role for Takeda–Shire, Medice, Novartis, and Servier. He has received royalties from Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press; research support from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council and the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation; and funding for the current study from the European Commission. All other authors declare no competing interests. TB served in an advisory or consultancy role for Eyelevel, Infectopharm, Lundbeck, Medice, Neurim Pharmaceuticals, Oberberg, Roche, and Takeda; received conference support or speaker’s fee from Jansen, Medice, and Takeda; and royalities from Hogrefe, Kohlhammer, CIP Medien, and Oxford University Press; outside the submitted work.

Objective: The short-term safety of methylphenidate (MPH) has been widely demonstrated; however the long-term safety is less clear. The aim of this study was to investigate the safety of MPH in relation to pubertal maturation and to explore the monitoring of bone age., Method: Participants from ADDUCE, a two-year observational longitudinal study with three parallel cohorts (MPH group, no-MPH group, and a non-ADHD control group), were compared with respect to Tanner staging. An Italian subsample of medicated-ADHD was further assessed by the monitoring of bone age., Results: The medicated and unmedicated ADHD groups did not differ in Tanner stages indicating no higher risk of sexual maturational delay in the MPH-treated patients. The medicated subsample monitored for bone age showed a slight acceleration of the bone maturation after 24 months, however their predicted adult height remained stable., Conclusion: Our results do not suggest safety concerns on long-term treatment with MPH in relation to pubertal maturation and growth., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: SC reports collaboration on projects from the EU Seventh Framework Program and on clinical trials sponsored by Lundbeck, Otsuka, Janssen-Cilag, Angelini and Acadia. KKCM reports grants from the CW Maplethorpe Fellowship, the UK National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the EU Horizon 2020 Framework, and the Hong Kong Research Grant Council, and personal fees from IQVIA Holdings, outside the submitted work. CB reports collaboration on projects from the EU Seventh Framework Program and on clinical trials sponsored by Otsuka, Janssen-Cilag, Angelini and Acadia. JB has been in the past 3 years a consultant to / member of advisory board of / and/or speaker for Takeda, Medice, Angelini, Janssen, Boehringer-Ingelheim, and Servier. He is not an employee of any of these companies, and not a stock shareholder of any of these companies. He has no other financial or material support, including expert testimony, patents, royalties. MD has received research funding from Takeda–Shire, outside the submitted work. RWD—For the past 3 years, he has no conflicts of interest to report. As a former company employee, he has been a stockholder of Eli Lilly & Co. FD reports collaboration as sub-investigator in clinical trials sponsored by Lundbeck as an independent rater in clinical trials sponsored by Servier and Acadia. BF has been a consultant or speaker for Abbvie, Actelion, Allergan, Almirall, Alnylam, Amgen, Astellas, Astrazeneca, Bayer, Biogen, Biopecs, Bioproject, Biotronik, BMS,Boehringer, Celgène, Daiichi-Sankyio, Ethypharm, Forestlab, Genevrier, Genzyme, Gilead, Grünenthal, GSK, Idorsia, IMS, Indivior, IQVIA, JNJ, Léo, Lilly, Lundbeck, Menarini, MSD, Novartis, Novonordisk, Otsuka, Pfizer, Pierre-Frabre, Recordati, Roche, SANOFI, Servier, Takeda, UCB, ViiV, and Wellmera. AH has received compensation for serving as consultant or speaker for Shire–Takeda and Medice, unrelated to this work. KKCM reports grants from the CW Maplethorpe Fellowship, the UK National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the EU Horizon 2020 Framework, and the Hong Kong Research Grant Council, and personal fees from IQVIA Holdings, outside the submitted work. CH reports research funding from the NIHR including the Health Technology Assessment SATURN trial (grant ref: NIHR128472) comparing methylpheidate with guanfacine for children and young people with ADHD and tics. CH was chair of the NICE Guideline (CG155) for psychosis and schizophrenia in children and young people; member of the NICE ADHD Guideline Update committee (NG87) and is a member of Eunethydis and the Europhean ADHD Guideline Group. SM reports speaker’s fee, travel support, and research support from Shire, outside the submitted work. AN reports research funding from the EU, the German Ministry of Health, and the German Federal Joint Committee, outside the submitted work. PN has been a consultant or speaker for Medice, Servier, and Egis Pharmaceuticals, outside the submitted work. ER received speaker’s fee and travel support from Shire, outside the submitted work. PN has been a consultant or speaker for Medice, Servier, and Egis Pharmaceuticals, outside the submitted work. ER received speaker’s fee and travel support from Shire, outside the submitted work. ESB has received in the last 3 years speakers fees from Takeda and Medice and research support from QBTech. AZ served in an advisory or consultancy role for Angelini, EduPharma, Servier; received conference support or speaker’s fee from Angelini and Janssen; participated in clinical trials conducted by Angelini, Janssen, Lundbeck, Otsuka, Roche, Sevier, and Shire; and received royalties from Giunti OS and Oxford University Press. ICKW reports research and educational funding from Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Janssen, Bayer, GSK, Novartis, Takeda, the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, the Hong Kong Health and Medical Research Fund, the Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Commission, the NIHR, the EU, and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, and the expert testimony payment from the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal; outside the submitted work. TB served in an advisory or consultancy role for eye level, Infectopharm, Medice, Neurim Pharmaceuticals, Oberberg GmbH and Takeda. He received conference support or speaker’s fee by Janssen, Medice and Takeda. He received royalities from Hogrefe, Kohlhammer, CIP Medien, Oxford University Press; the present work is unrelated to these relationships. DC reports, in the past 3 years, a consultant, member of advisory board, or speaker role for Takeda–Shire, Medice, Novartis, and Servier. He has received royalties from Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press; research support from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council and the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation; and funding for the current study from the European Commission. All other authors declare no competing interests.

The ability to manage frustration induced by having to wait for valued outcomes emerges across childhood and is an important marker of self-regulatory capacity. However, approaches to measure this capacity in preschool children are lacking. In this study, we introduced a new task, the Preschool Delay Frustration Task (P-DeFT), designed specifically to identify children's behavioral and emotional markers of waiting-induced frustration during the imposed wait period and after the release from waiting. We then explored how waiting-induced frustration relates to individual differences in delay sensitivity and whether it differs between two cultural groups thought to have different attitudes toward children's conduct and performance: Hong Kong (HK) and the United Kingdom (UK). A total of 112 preschool children (mean age = 46.22 months) completed the P-DeFT in a quiet laboratory. Each trial had two stages; first, a button press elicited a Go signal; second, this Go signal allowed children to go to a "supermarket" to pick a target toy. On most trials, the Go signal occurred immediately on the first press. On 6 trials, an unexpected/unsignaled 5- or 10-s pre-Go-signal period was imposed. Frustration was indexed by performance (button presses and press duration), behavioral agitation, and negative affect during the pre-Go-signal wait period and the post-Go-signal shopping task. Parents rated their children's delay sensitivity. Waiting-related frustration expressed during both the pre-Go-signal wait period and the post-Go-signal task varied with (a) the length of wait and (b) individual differences in parent-rated delay sensitivity. UK children displayed more negative affect during delay than their HK counterparts, although the relationship between delay sensitivity and frustration was culturally invariant., (Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)