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Childhood obesity and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a newly described comorbidity in obese hospitalized children.

Agranat-Meged AN, Deitcher C, Goldzweig G, Leibenson L, Stein M, Galili-Weisstub E

Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital, Hebrew University Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel. anatagranat@barak-online.net

OBJECTIVE: The current study described a subgroup of children presenting with obesity and comorbid attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) and assessed a possible casual relationship. METHOD: School-aged children hospitalized for obesity (body mass index [BMI] >85%) in a tertiary referral center underwent extensive evaluations and were prospectively assessed for comorbid AD/HD. RESULTS: During a 4-year period, 32 obese school-aged children were hospitalized and 26 were included in the current study. We found that over one half (57.7%) suffered from comorbid AD/HD. DISCUSSION: AD/HD shows a high comorbidity among obese hospitalized children. The characteristic difficulty in regulation found in AD/HD may be a risk factor for the development of abnormal eating behaviors leading to obesity. We suggest that obese children should be screened routinely for AD/HD.

Published 2 May 2005 in Int J Eat Disord, 37(4): 357-9.
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