Late adolescent outcomes of different developmental trajectories of ADHD symptoms in a large longitudinal study.

There exists substantial heterogeneity in the developmental trajectories of ADHD symptoms, with distinctions often made between persistent versus remittent, and early- versus late-onset. However, how these trajectories relate to late adolescent functioning and whether, in particular, later onset trajectories mark a milder subtype remains unclear. Building on earlier work that has examined early life predictors of ADHD symptom trajectories up to age 14, we applied latent class growth analysis to data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study (N = 10,262) to evaluate whether developmental trajectories of ADHD symptoms up to age 17 (from age 3) were similar to those identified up to age 14 and associated with differing levels of impairment in peer victimisation, mental health, substance use, and delinquency outcomes at age 17.

Developmental trajectories of ADHD symptoms in a large population-representative longitudinal study.

Background: Previous research has suggested that there is substantial heterogeneity in the developmental trajectories of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms. Sometimes, qualitative distinctions between trajectories with different ages of onset and/or patterns of remission are made; however, little is known about the predictors and broader clinical meaningfulness of these candidate 'developmental subtypes' of ADHD symptoms.

Methods: We applied latent class growth analysis to data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS; N = 11 316; ages 3, 5, 7, 11 and 14) to evaluate whether developmental trajectories of ADHD symptoms differing in early life predictors could be identified.