Mental Health | ADHD More Prevalent in Boys, Adolescents With ASD
Mental Health | In hospitalized children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), predictors of co-morbid attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)....
... included male sex, adolescent age, White race, and longer hospital stay, according to study results presented at Psych Congress 2020 Virtual Experience, held online from September 11 to 13, 2020.
This retrospective study analyzed hospital admission records comprising 3095 cases of ASD obtained from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project’s Nationwide Inpatient Sample. The data range for inclusion in the analysis was January 2012 to January 2014. Approximately 32.5% (n=1005) of the cases reported a co-diagnosis of ADHD.
Boys were found to have a significantly higher odds of co-morbid ADHD compared with girls (odds ratio [OR], 2.2; 95% CI, 1.741-2.749; P <.001). Adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18 years were more likely to have ADHD compared with those aged <11 years (58.7% vs 41.3%, respectively).
A higher prevalence of co-morbid ADHD was also found in White patients (66.7%) compared with those of African American (16.4%), Hispanic (11.4%), and Asian (2.5%) descent. Patients with ASD and co-morbid ADHD were mostly from the South (30.8%) and Midwest (29.9%).
Psychosis was reported in a significantly higher proportion of patients with ADHD compared with patients without ADHD (37.3% vs 24.9%, respectively; OR, 1.762; 95% CI, 1.485-2.090; P <.001). Additionally, patients with ADHD had a longer hospital stay (9.2 ± 9.319 vs 7.9 ± 11.971 days).
Co-morbid ADHD with ASD increased the length of hospital stay by 0.9 days, whereas co-morbid depression increased length of stay by 2.1 days. Conversely, co-morbid drug use was associated with a 6-day decrease in hospital length of stay.
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