ADHD Diagnosis and Timing of Medication Initiation Among Children Aged 3 to 5 Years

What is the prevalence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnoses and timing of initiation of medications among children aged 3 to 5 years seen in primary care?In this cohort study of electronic health records for 712 478 children seen in primary care practices at 8 US pediatric health systems, the prevalence of ADHD was 1.4% (range across institutions, 0.5%-3.1%); 68.2% of patients were prescribed medications and 42.2% had medications prescribed within 30 days of diagnosis, with variation by race, ethnicity, and insurance type.These findings suggest that investigation of barriers to nonpharmacological interventions, as well as factors associated with early prescriptions of ADHD medications, for preschool-age children is warranted.

Corresponding Author: Yair Bannett, MD, MS, Division of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, 3145 Porter Dr, Palo Alto, CA 94304 (ybannett@stanford.edu).

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