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Association of Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS)-61 items with clinical psychiatric diagnosis in adulthood

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Abstract

Background

The Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS) is a widely used retrospective scale in adults presenting for ADHD evaluations which features items relating to childhood symptoms.

Aims

The aim of this study is to establish if certain childhood symptoms (including ADHD) as identified by the WURS-61 are associated with specific mental health disorders in adulthood.

Methods

Case-control study of N=630 attending Adult Mental Health Services (AMHS) and a control group without mental disorders (N=96).

Results

The mean age of the participants was 39.81 (SD 12.94) of which 387 (53.3%) were females. There were no significant differences between cases and controls in terms of age (t= 1.829, df 724, p=.068) and gender (x2=1.123, df 1, p=.289). Exploratory factor analysis of WURS-61 reveals 5 factors. Using factor scores and after cross-tabulation, we found that: The presence of childhood impulsivity, emotional lability and distress in addition to inattention/disorganisation were significantly associated with adult ADHD diagnosis (F90). WURS items which suggests childhood conduct problems were associated with a number of adult diagnoses, when present either on its own (psychoactive substance use, or when present in combination with childhood impulsivity, emotional lability and distress (personality disorders).

Conclusion

There is an association between certain childhood behaviours and risk for later development of personality disorders, and psychoactive substance use. There is overlap of childhood symptoms to those who later diagnosed in adulthood with ADHD, personality disorders, and substance abuse.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sligo Mental Health Services, Clarion Rd, Sligo, Ireland

    Cliodhna Hanley, Faisal Saleem, Ignazio Graffeo, Geraldine McCarthy & Dimitrios Adamis

  2. University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Cliodhna Hanley, Blánaid Gavin & Fiona McNicholas

Authors
  1. Cliodhna Hanley
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  2. Faisal Saleem
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  3. Ignazio Graffeo
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  4. Geraldine McCarthy
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  5. Blánaid Gavin
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  6. Fiona McNicholas
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  7. Dimitrios Adamis
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Miss Cliodhna Hanley, Dr Faisal Saleem, Dr Ignazio Graffeo and Dr Dimitrios Adamis. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Dr Dimitrios Adamis, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Dimitrios Adamis.

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Ethical approval was received from the Ethical Committee of Sligo University Hospital.

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Verbal informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.

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Hanley, C., Saleem, F., Graffeo, I. et al. Association of Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS)-61 items with clinical psychiatric diagnosis in adulthood. Ir J Med Sci 191, 327–335 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-021-02574-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-021-02574-7

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