TY - JOUR
T1 - The quality of life of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder
T2 - a systematic review
AU - Danckaerts, Marina
AU - Sonuga-Barke, Edmund J. S.
AU - Banaschewski, Tobias
AU - Buitelaar, Jan
AU - Doepfner, Manfred
AU - Hollis, Chris
AU - Santosh, Paramala
AU - Rothenberger, Aribert
AU - Sergeant, Joseph
AU - Steinhausen, Hans-Christoph
AU - Taylor, Eric
AU - Zuddas, Alessandro
AU - Coghill, David
PY - 2010/2
Y1 - 2010/2
N2 - Quality of life (QoL) describes an individual's subjective perception of their position in life as evidenced by their physical, psychological, and social functioning. QoL has become an increasingly important measure of outcome in child mental health clinical work and research. Here we provide a systematic review of QoL studies in children and young people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and address three main questions. (1) What is the impact of ADHD on QoL? (2) What are the relationships between ADHD symptoms, functional impairment and the mediators and moderators of QoL in ADHD? (3) Does the treatment of ADHD impact on QoL? Databases were systematically searched to identify research studies describing QoL in ADHD. Thirty six relevant articles were identified. Robust negative effects on QoL are reported by the parents of children with ADHD across a broad range of psycho-social, achievement and self evaluation domains. Children with ADHD rate their own QoL less negatively than their parents and do not always seeing themselves as functioning less well than healthy controls. ADHD has a comparable overall impact on QoL compared to other mental health conditions and severe physical disorders. Increased symptom level and impairment predicts poorer QoL. The presence of comorbid conditions or psychosocial stressors helps explain these effects. There is emerging evidence that QoL improves with effective treatment. In conclusion, ADHD seriously compromises QoL especially when seen from a parents' perspective. QoL outcomes should be included as a matter of course in future treatment studies.
AB - Quality of life (QoL) describes an individual's subjective perception of their position in life as evidenced by their physical, psychological, and social functioning. QoL has become an increasingly important measure of outcome in child mental health clinical work and research. Here we provide a systematic review of QoL studies in children and young people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and address three main questions. (1) What is the impact of ADHD on QoL? (2) What are the relationships between ADHD symptoms, functional impairment and the mediators and moderators of QoL in ADHD? (3) Does the treatment of ADHD impact on QoL? Databases were systematically searched to identify research studies describing QoL in ADHD. Thirty six relevant articles were identified. Robust negative effects on QoL are reported by the parents of children with ADHD across a broad range of psycho-social, achievement and self evaluation domains. Children with ADHD rate their own QoL less negatively than their parents and do not always seeing themselves as functioning less well than healthy controls. ADHD has a comparable overall impact on QoL compared to other mental health conditions and severe physical disorders. Increased symptom level and impairment predicts poorer QoL. The presence of comorbid conditions or psychosocial stressors helps explain these effects. There is emerging evidence that QoL improves with effective treatment. In conclusion, ADHD seriously compromises QoL especially when seen from a parents' perspective. QoL outcomes should be included as a matter of course in future treatment studies.
KW - Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
KW - Quality of life
KW - Systematic review
KW - DEFICIT-HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER
KW - OPPOSITIONAL DEFIANT DISORDER
KW - HEALTH STATE UTILITIES
KW - PARENT REPORT FORM
KW - ATOMOXETINE TREATMENT
KW - MEASUREMENT MODEL
KW - MENTAL-DISORDERS
KW - OPEN-LABEL
KW - ADOLESCENTS
KW - ADHD
U2 - 10.1007/s00787-009-0046-3
DO - 10.1007/s00787-009-0046-3
M3 - Review article
C2 - 19633992
SN - 1018-8827
VL - 19
SP - 83
EP - 105
JO - European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
JF - European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
IS - 2
ER -
