No abstract

Enuresis and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are common childhood disorders that often co-occur. Although each has been linked to neurodevelopmental immaturity and increased risk for psychopathology, the clinical correlates of enuresis remain unclear. Subjects were 140 6-17-year-old boys with DSM-III-R ADHD and 120 non-ADHD controls. Information on enuresis and psychiatric diagnoses was obtained in a standardized manner blind to the child's clinical status. Our results show that (1) enuresis did not increase the risk for psychopathology in children with or without ADHD; (2) enuresis was not associated with psychosocial adversity or developmental immaturity; (3) enuresis was associated with increased risk for learning disability, impaired intellectual functioning, and impaired school achievement in normal control children but not in children with ADHD; and (4) the same pattern of findings was obtained after stratifying children with enuresis by primary versus secondary and by nocturnal versus diurnal subtypes. These results suggest that the clinical implications of enuresis may differ for ADHD and non-ADHD children.

Geschwind and colleagues have proposed an association among reading disability, immune disorder, and motor preference. Although reading disability commonly overlaps with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), ADHD has not been previously examined in studies evaluating Geschwind's hypothesis. In this paper we evaluate whether ADHD is associated with either asthma or left motor preference and whether asthma and left motor preference are associated with each other. Subjects were 6- to 17-year-old boys with DSM-III-R ADHD (n = 140) and normal controls (n = 120). Information on reading disability, asthma, and motor preference was obtained in a standardized manner blind to the proband's clinical status. Neither ADHD nor reading disability was associated with either asthma or left motor preference nor was asthma and left motor preference associated with one another. Our results are not consistent with Geschwind's hypothesis linking reading disability, immune disorder, and left motor preference.