Teens presenting with late ‐onset ADHD symptoms and requesting stimulant medication: Next step?

When an adolescent or young adult seeks stimulant medication for late‐onset attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, what kind of screening instruments can be used, and what are possible alternative causes of symptoms? Researchers examined psychiatric assessments and discovered that only 2.5% of the teens who screened positive in initial checklists actually had late‐onset ADHD. Some of those teens had undetected childhood ADHD. The main reason for impairing late‐onset ADHD symptoms that was not ADHD was substance use — in this study, marijuana use.
Source: The Brown University Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology Update - Category: Psychiatry Tags: What's ‐New‐in‐Research Source Type: research