How common is ADHD in children with epilepsy?
Epidemiological studies suggest that ADHD is the most common psychiatric diagnosis in child and adolescent populations, affecting approximately 4.4 million school-aged children in the U.S. (CDC, 2003). In comparison, the prevalence of clinically-significant attentional impairment is considerably higher in children with epilepsy, ranging from 30-40% (Semrud-Clikeman & Wical, 1999). The particularly high rate of attentional problems in this population is not surprising given that consistent, uninterrupted responsiveness is a prerequisite for attention (Oostrom et al., 2002). Conversely, seizure activity, by its very nature, may diminish responsiveness to external stimuli, resulting in significant behaviorally- and cognitively-based attention deficits. In children with epilepsy, attentional impairments may be caused by frequent, subclinical seizure activity (Binnie, 1993), underlying neuroanatomical damage (Mitchell, Zhou, Chavez, & Guzman, 1992), or frontal/ temporal lobe seizure focus (
