Personality profile of parents of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Objectives: The present study was carried out aiming to identify the personality profile of parents of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Methods: This study is of a descriptive, analytic, cross-sectional type in which parents of 6-12-year-old children with ADHD who were referred to the Bozorgmehr Psychiatric Clinic, affiliated with Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, were enrolled. ADHD was diagnosed according to the criteria of DSM-IV-TR and a quasi-structured diagnostic interview (K-SADS-PL). The personality profile of the parents was assessed with the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III).

Results: According to the findings of this study, the most common personality problems based on the assessment scales in the MCMI-III belonged to the clinical patterns of depressive personality in 43 persons (25.3%), histrionic personality in 34 persons (20%), and compulsive personality in 29 persons (17.1%). According to discriminant analysis, four scales of somatoform, sadistic, dependence, and though disorder were direct and antisocial scale was reverse significant predictors of membership in the women group.

Conclusion: According to the findings of this pilot study, personality disorders are prevalent in parents of ADHD children and mothers suffer from personality disorders more than fathers.