A retrospective survey of childhood ADHD symptomatology among adult narcoleptics.

OBJECTIVE

This study examined the retrospective history of childhood ADHD symptomatology in an adult narcoleptic population (Narcolepsy Group [NG]: n = 161) compared with a control group (CG: n = 117).

METHOD

Both groups completed the Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS), a retrospective self-report questionnaire indicating the presence of childhood ADHD symptomatology in adults.

RESULTS

Childhood ADHD symptoms were significantly greater in NG than CG (p < .001). Joint prevalence calculations of childhood ADHD symptomatology in NG were more than 8 to 15 times greater than expected. Among NG, those individuals with a greater score on the WURS, indicative of childhood ADHD symptomatology, also had shorter sleep onsets on the Multiple Sleep Latency Test, a common objective measure of sleepiness, t(97) = -7.11, p < .05.

CONCLUSION

It appears that self-reported childhood ADHD symptomatology history among adult narcoleptics is common. Future research is warranted with adult narcoleptics to elucidate the true nature of this.