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. 2022 Apr;31(4):553-564.
doi: 10.1007/s00787-020-01698-y. Epub 2020 Dec 4.

Predicting delinquent behavior in young adults with a childhood diagnosis of ADHD: results from the Cologne Adaptive Multimodal Treatment (CAMT) Study

Dieter Breuer #  1 , Elena von Wirth #  1 , Janet Mandler  1 , Stephanie Schürmann  1   2 , Manfred Döpfner  3   4
Affiliations

Predicting delinquent behavior in young adults with a childhood diagnosis of ADHD: results from the Cologne Adaptive Multimodal Treatment (CAMT) Study

Dieter Breuer et al. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2022 Apr.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate which factors predict lifetime reports of delinquent behavior in young adults who had received adaptive multimodal treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) starting at ages 6-10 years. Participants were reassessed 13-24 years (M = 17.6, SD = 1.8) after they had received individualized ADHD treatment in the Cologne Adaptive Multimodal Treatment Study (CAMT). Their behavior was classified as non-delinquent (n = 34) or delinquent (n = 25) based on self-reports regarding the number of police contacts, offenses, and convictions at follow-up. Childhood variables assessed at post-intervention (e.g., externalizing child behavior problems, intelligence, and parenting behavior) that were significantly associated with group membership were entered as possible predictors of delinquency in a Chi-squared automatic interaction detector (CHAID) analysis. Delinquent behavior during adolescence and adulthood was best predicted by (a) meeting the symptom count diagnostic criteria for conduct disorder (CD) according to parent ratings, in combination with a nonverbal intelligence of IQ ≤ 106 at post-intervention, and (b) delinquent behavior problems (teacher rating) at post-intervention. The predictor variables specified in the CHAID analysis classified 81% of the participants correctly. The results support the hypothesis that a childhood diagnosis of ADHD is only predictive of delinquent behavior if it is accompanied by early conduct behavior problems. Low nonverbal intelligence was found to be an additional risk factor. These findings underline the importance of providing behavioral interventions that focus on externalizing behavior problems to children with ADHD and comorbid conduct problems.

Keywords: Attention-deficit; Delinquent behavior; Hyperactivity disorder; Longitudinal study; Prediction.

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Conflict of interest statement

MD served in an advisory or consultancy role for Lilly, Medice, Novartis, Shire, and Vifor Pharma. He received conference attendance support, conference support, or speaker’s fees from Lilly, Medice, Novartis, and Shire. He is or has been involved in clinical trials conducted by Lilly, Shire, and Vifor. MD and SS are the authors of the behavioral treatment program that is investigated in this study and receive royalties from the publisher Beltz, Weinheim.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
CHAID decision tree for group membership (non-delinquent/delinquent) (n = 59)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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