Prevalência do Transtorno de Déficit de Atenção e Hiperatividade em crianças e adolescentes brasileiros: revisão sistemática

Abstract

Introduction: Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is an important pediatric neuropsychiatric disease, considering its psychosocial and academic implications. A global meta-analysis estimated its prevalence between 5.5% and 8.5%. Few brazilian studies were included and there are perspectives that national results are different from the literature. Objective: evaluate the prevalence of ADHD in brazilian children and adolescents by a systematic review. Methods: the authors selected scientific articles in the following databases; BVS, PUBMed and Bank of thesis. The following descriptors registered in MeSH and DeCS were used: prevalence, epidemiology, attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity, Brazil and ADHD. Cochrane´s searching protocol was utilized. Two pairs of researchers independently searched for studies and, afterwards, compared their results. Relevant studies based on these references were chosen, whose methodology were suitable for evaluation of ADHD prevalence in non-clinical groups Results: 253 articles were recruited and 18 did not fit the inclusion criteria. The participants selection varied from sampling of a single school to the inclusion of all the children of a town. Although 14 studies have refered the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. – DSM(IV) (1) as their main diagnostic tool, few of them considered topics such as clinical evaluation and the presence of symptoms in two or more environments. One article used only diagnostic information mentioned by the parents in the registration form. The prevalence of ADHD varied from 0.9% to 19.4% and was in the confidence interval of global meta-analysis. Male sex was more prevalent in almost all selected articles. Conclusion: There was an heterogeneity of prevalences associated with different methods. The studies who had stronger methodological rigor found prevalences similar to global results, between 0.9% and 5.8%. As the majority of researches were developed in South and Southeast brazilian regions, new studies must be conducted aiming an adequate national representation.