Patterns of psychopathology in children with ADHD: a latent profile analysis

This study used latent profile modeling (LPA) with a community sample that included an enriched sampling of children (aged 6-11) diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (N = 271). Six classes of ADHD emerged from our LPA; only 17% of children fell into a class without significant co-occurring symptoms. In addition, nearly half of children were assigned to classes that could not be reliably distinguished using existing DSM-IV subtypes. For the most part, each of the classes was clearly differentiated from a sample of community controls and had clinical diagnoses and child self-reports that were consistent with expectations given by their latent profile of symptoms. Although each of the respective classes of ADHD had elevated levels of hyperactivity and/or attention problems, the current findings suggest that an exclusive reliance on these dimensions is a largely inadequate method of subtype classification. To the contrary, our findings suggest that ADHD subtypes can be more reliably partitioned based on the degree to which they display disruptive behavior, internalizing symptoms, or both.