Alan Leviton, Stephen R Hooper, Scott J Hunter, Megan N Scott, Elizabeth N Allred, Robert M Joseph, T Michael O’Shea, Karl Kuban, ELGAN Study Investigators
Pediatr Neurol. 2017 Dec 21. pii: S0887-8994(17)30921-9.
We studied 583 ten-year-old children who were born before 28 weeks of gestation whose IQ was above 84 and had a parent-completed Child Symptom Inventory-4. The risk profile of screening positive for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder based on a parent’s report differed from risk profile based on teacher’s report, whereas risk profile according to physician and according to any two observers closely resembled the parent-reported profile. Among the statistically significant risk factors were young maternal age, maternal obesity, maternal smoking, singleton, magnesium at delivery, receipt of a sedative, recovery of Mycoplasma from placenta, low GA, low birth weight, male, mechanical ventilation on day seven, ROP, NEC, antibiotic receipt, and VM on U/S. The multiplicity of risk factors identified can be subsumed as components of 4 broad themes: low SE state, immaturity or vulnerability, inflammation, and epigenetic phenomena.