Symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in an Italian school sample: findings of a pilot study.

Objective: The objective of this study was to complete a teacher questionnaire on a sample of children (N = 232) in nine fourth grade classes in schools in two regions of central Italy to assess the frequency of occurrence of symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the rates of probable cases in the sample.
Method: Each ADHD symptom was rated by the teacher as either absent (0), sometimes present (1) or frequently present (2).
Results: Of the children 3.9% had eight or more DSM-III-R Criterion A symptoms of ADHD scored at a "frequent" level (score of 2) and were considered to be "likely cases" of ADHD; an additional 6.9% did not meet this threshold but had a total score of 16 or more on the scale and were considered to be "possible cases."
Conclusions: The findings suggest the need for more systematic epidemiological investigations to evaluate the true prevalence of the syndrome and its risk factors in the Italian population.