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. 2020 Jun;10(6):e01605.
doi: 10.1002/brb3.1605. Epub 2020 Apr 13.

Validity and accuracy of the Adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Self-Report Scale (ASRS) and the Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS) symptom checklists in discriminating between adults with and without ADHD

Erlend Joramo Brevik  1   2   3 , Astri J Lundervold  2   3 , Jan Haavik  1   2 , Maj-Britt Posserud  2   4
Affiliations

Validity and accuracy of the Adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Self-Report Scale (ASRS) and the Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS) symptom checklists in discriminating between adults with and without ADHD

Erlend Joramo Brevik et al. Brain Behav. 2020 Jun.

Erratum in

Abstract

Objective: To validate the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) and the Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS) in a well-characterized sample of adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) patients and population controls.

Methods: Both the ASRS and the WURS were administered to clinically diagnosed adult ADHD patients (n = 646) and to population controls (n = 908). We performed principal component analyses (PCA) and calculated receiver operating curves (ROC) including area under the curve (AUC) for the full WURS and ASRS, as well as for the PCA generated factors and the ASRS short screener.

Results: We found an AUC of 0.956 (95% CI: 0.946-0.965) for the WURS, and 0.904 (95% CI: 0.888-0.921) for the ASRS. The ASRS short screener had an AUC of 0.903 (95%CI: 0.886-0.920). Combining the two full scales gave an AUC of 0.964 (95% CI: 0.955-0.973). We replicated the two-factor structure of the ASRS and found a three-factor model for the WURS.

Conclusion: The WURS and the ASRS both have high diagnostic accuracy. The short ASRS screener performed equally well as the full ASRS, whereas the WURS had the best discriminatory properties. The increased diagnostic accuracy may be due to the wider symptom range of the WURS and/or the retrospective childhood frame of symptoms.

Keywords: adult; attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity; checklist; psychometrics.

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Conflict of interest statement

JH has received lecture honoraria as part of continuing medical education programs sponsored by Novartis, Eli Lilly and Company, and Janssen‐Cilag. The other authors report no potential conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Distribution of WURS and ASRS scores in the ADHD and control samples. Top left: Distribution of ASRS scores. Bottom left: Distribution of WURS scores. Right: Overlap between scores on the WURS and ASRS. Controls are green. ADHD patients are blue. Lines represent a cutoff score of 35; vertical line for WURS, horizontal line for ASRS. This gives a sensitivity of 0.90 and specificity of 0.88 for the WURS, and a sensitivity of 0.80 and specificity of 0.88 for the ASRS
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Receiving operator curve illustrating the psychometric properties of the WURS and the ASRS in predicting adult ADHD status. Blue line represents the ASRS and the WURS combined. Red line represents the WURS. Green line represents the ASRS. Orange line represents the ASRS Short screener 6 item sum. Yellow line represents the ASRS Short screener used dichotomously. A steeper curve indicates better discriminatory properties
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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