Physical signs and symptoms in preschool-age hyperactive and normal children

Although little research has been done on the topic, it is commonly believed that attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADDH) is often associated with elevated levels of physical complaints. Three studies were conducted to evaluate the prevalence of physical signs and symptoms (primarily gastrointestinal, respiratory, and dermal) in preschool-age ADDH and non-ADDH children. In the first two studies, the parents of ADDH children reported consistently greater frequency of such signs and symptoms than did the parents of non-ADDH children. In the third study, parents kept daily logs for 21 days, in which they recorded three times each day the presence or absence of each sign and symptom. In this study, there also was a remarkable increase in the frequency of reported physical signs and symptoms for the ADDH children. Several possible mechanisms for these findings are discussed.