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Quaderni di Psicoterapia Cognitiva - Open Access

SEZIONE GENERALE - ADHD: nuove prospettive

No. 55 (2024)

ADHD in childhood and adulthood: Diagnostic differences and factors that contribute to outlining the patient’s profile

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3280/qpc55-2024oa20372
Submitted
giugno 12, 2025
Published
2025-07-08

Abstract

With a prevalence of over 5%, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most frequent disorders in child and adolescent psychiatry. Furthermore, data indicate that approximately 2,5% of the adult population presents a neuro-atypical functioning that falls under the ADHD diagnostic label (following the DSM-5). This article aims to outline the main characteristics of the psychological functioning profile of subjects diagnosed with ADHD, both in developmental age and in adulthood. The aim is also to highlight possible constants that outline developmental trajectories and continuity throughout the life cycle, but also differences both in terms of diagnosis and phenomenological expressiveness of this
clinical condition, included into neurodevelopmental disorders.
In conclusion, ADHD functioning is complex, both because the diagnosis is still defined
as mainly clinical and not solely defined by instrumental data, and because there is a broad symptomatic phenomenology that requires the clinician to consider this functioning as on a continuum, where the intensity of behaviors and manifestations can have great differences from patient to patient and can even change over the course of a lifetime.

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