Guide to Assessment Scales in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Authors Scott H. Kollins, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center, North Carolina. He completed his undergraduate degree at Duke University, and earned his doctorate in clinical psychology from Auburn University. His primary research areas of expertise pertain to the psychopharmacology of stimulant drugs used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the comorbidity of nicotine dependence and ADHD. He is an elected member of both the College on Problems of Drug Dependence and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. He has published more than 70 peer-reviewed scientific papers and his research has been consistently funded for over 10 years by federal and industry sources. He has 15 years of clinical experience working with ADHD individuals and their families. The ADHD Program at Duke University, which Dr Kollins directs, serves more than 150 families annually from across the US and the world. Elizabeth P. Sparrow, PhD, is a clinical neuropsychologist in private practice in Raleigh, North Carolina. She received her doctorate in clinical psychology from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, with a clinical internship in neuropsychology at the University of Chicago and post-doctoral residency in pediatric neuropsychology at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Prior to pursuing her doctorate, Dr Sparrow worked with Dr Conners in his ADHD Clinic at Duke University Medical Center. In addition to private practice, Dr Sparrow has served as a consultant to test publishers to improve assessment tools for ADHD. She has also provided consultation to the pharmaceutical industry to improve research on new compounds for ADHD, including measure selection and rater training in adult and pediatric ADHD clinical trials. Dr Sparrow has presented on ADHD and related disorders at national and international conferences, as well as providing local training seminars on identification of ADHD across the lifespan. Publications include journal articles, book chapters, and most recently, a book, Essentials of Conners Behavior Assessments. Editor C. Keith Conners is Professor Emeritus, Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. He had an extraordinary career as an academic, clinician, researcher, lecturer, author, editor-in-chief, and administrator. Dr Conners received his PhD from Harvard University, Massachusetts. His focus on ADHD grew while working as a clinical psychiatrist and research assistant at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Maryland. Dr Conners' first task was to analyze data for a study of the effects of dexedrine on symptomatology in delinquents. When he recognized that a lot of the children underwent remarkable improvements on dexedrine and ritalin, he realized that it was a lifelong topic of study. He was also impressed by the teacher's ability to recognize dramatic changes in drug-treated children. This discovery led to his use of teacher ratings as a way of documenting drug changes. Dr Conners saw many children whose diverse pattern of symptoms interested him. Employing another symptom list already in use, he collected data on normal and clinical children, and eventually published the first version of the Parent Rating Scale. The increasing use of the rating scales eventually made his original articles among the most cited in the literature. He has written several books on attention disorders and neuropsychology, and hundreds of journal articles and book chapters based on his research regarding the effects of food additives, nutrition, stimulant drugs, diagnosis, and dimensional syndromes C. Keith Conners is Professor Emeritus, Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. He had an extraordinary career as an academic, clinician, researcher, lecturer, author, editor-in-chief, and administrator. Dr Conners received his PhD from Harvard University, Massachusetts. His focus on ADHD grew while working as a clinical psychiatrist and research assistant at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Maryland. Dr Conners' first task was to analyze data for a study of the effects of dexedrine on symptomatology in delinquents. When he recognized that a lot of the children underwent remarkable improvements on dexedrine and ritalin, he realized that it was a lifelong topic of study. He was also impressed by the teacher's ability to recognize dramatic changes in drug-treated children. This discovery led to his use of teacher ratings as a way of documenting drug changes. Dr Conners saw many children whose diverse pattern of symptoms interested him. Employing another symptom list already in use, he collected data on normal and clinical children, and eventually published the first version of the Parent Rating Scale. The increasing use of the rating scales eventually made his original articles among the most cited in the literature. He has written several books on attention disorders and neuropsychology, and hundreds of journal articles and book chapters based on his research regarding the effects of food additives, nutrition, stimulant drugs, diagnosis, and dimensional syndromes C. Keith Conners is Professor Emeritus, Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. He had an extraordinary career as an academic, clinician, researcher, lecturer, author, editor-in-chief, and administrator. Dr Conners received his PhD from Harvard University, Massachusetts. His focus on ADHD grew while working as a clinical psychiatrist and research assistant at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Maryland. Dr Conners' first task was to analyze data for a study of the effects of dexedrine on symptomatology in delinquents. When he recognized that a lot of the children underwent remarkable improvements on dexedrine and ritalin, he realized that it was a lifelong topic of study. He was also impressed by the teacher's ability to recognize dramatic changes in drug-treated children. This discovery led to his use of teacher ratings as a way of documenting drug changes. Dr Conners saw many children whose diverse pattern of symptoms interested him. Employing another symptom list already in use, he collected data on normal and clinical children, and eventually published the first version of the Parent Rating Scale. The increasing use of the rating scales eventually made his original articles among the most cited in the literature. He has written several books on attention disorders and neuropsychology, and hundreds of journal articles and book chapters based on his research regarding the effects of food additives, nutrition, stimulant drugs, diagnosis, and dimensional syndromes