Recent Advances in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Individuals With Intellectual Disability
Haojiang Huang, M.D., Ph.D. & Stephen Ruedrich, M.D.

An extensive review of the literature supports that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common and valid co-morbid diagnosis in individuals with intellectual disability. Two recently published diagnostic manuals, the Diagnostic Criteria-Learning Disability (DC-LD) and Diagnostic Manual–Intellectual Disability (DM-ID), support this assertion, and should improve diagnostic accuracy. However, standards are still urgently needed to establish the symptomatic thresholds, above which an individual with intellectual disability who demonstrates inattentive or hyperactive behavior, can be diagnosed as having co-morbid ADHD. Similar to neurotypical persons with ADHD, stimulants are the primary pharmacological treatment in for individuals with ADHD and intellectual disability, but expected treatment response may be less robust. Future research should attempt to refine symptomatic thresholds for ADHD diagnosis, and further characterize ADHD as a behavioral phenotype of intellectual disability etiologies..