Assessment of Obesity, Psychiatric Comorbidity and Food Addiction in Children and Adolescents with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder

Objective: There are studies showing that there is a significant relationship between ADHD and obesity. However the number of studies conducted on this topic is limited in our country. It is aimed to evaluate obesity frequency, distribution of psychiatric comorbidity and food addiction in children and adolescents with ADHD who applied to our outpatient clinic. Methods: Our sample size was planned to represent Ankara city and power analysis revealed that a sample of 369 individuals would be sufficient for the representation. Our sample consisted of 400 children aged between 8-16 years who applied to our clinic between June 15, 2016 and June 15, 2017 and diagnosed as ADHD. All cases were administered a semi-structured clinical assessment interview (K-SADS-PL) and a sociodemographic data form. Body mass index (BMI) of all subjects was calculated. The Conners Parent Rating Scale, The Conners Teacher Rating Scale and the Yale Food Addiction Scale for Children (YFAS-C) were used. According to age and sex, weight percentiles between 85-94 percentiles was defined as overweight, and #8805;95 percentile was defined as obese. SPSS 17.0 was used for statistical analysis, p. Results: ADHD-inattentive subtype was found to be higher in obese group compared to normal weight group. According to the YFAS-C, the mean symptom count was 2.3 (square 1.8), 43.3% (n=173) of cases who met three of the seven criteria determined as food addiction risk and 17.3% (n=69) of cases met the functional impairment criteria and determined as food addiction diagnosis. Mean symptom count and food addicition risk were significantly higher in obese and overweight groups compared to the normal weight group. ADHD-inattentive subtype, family history of obesity, short breast-feeding duration, fast food consumption and food addiction risk were predictors of obesity in ADHD. The mean symptom count, food addiction risk and food addiction diagnosis was significantly higher in those with psychiatric comorbidity than those without psychiatric comorbidity. Food addiction diagnosis found to be significantly higher in distruptive behavior disorder. Conclusion: Considering current literature and our study results; obesity risk assessment in ADHD-inattentive subtype can be useful for early intervention in obesity especially those who failed to lose weight. Due to high comorbidity of ADHD and obesity, it is benefical for the clinicians working with obesity to consult patients for ADHD assessment. New longitudinal studies would be useful to understand the comorbidity of obesity, food addiction and ADHD.