Prevalence of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in Venezuelan college students. Preliminary findings

The aim of this study was to estimate the frequency of the attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in college students. The sample was constituted by 411 college students, ages between 17 and 47 years, attending the School of Education at the Universidad del Zulia, 1st thru 5th semester. The identification of probable cases was performed by using the ASR-S v1.1 and FASCT as screening instruments. For the second part of the diagnostic process, students with positive scores in both screening measures were selected to be interviewed using the M.I.N.I plus. Results indicated that the estimated prevalence of ADHD in college students is 4.8%, with a behavioral profile which suggests that hyperactivity-impulsivity symptoms were predominant in this sample. Comorbidity related to the ADHD diagnosis was 35%. A prevalence estimate of 4.35% should be considered as an alert sign for the need of diagnostic and treatment of this population.