Evaluation of awareness in primary health care facilities in terms of adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most frequently diagnosed and treated disorder in psychiatry. It is still not sufficiently recognized in adult psychiatry, is often overlooked, and cases that apply to psychiatry for the treatment of ADHD-related problems are tried to be treated with other diagnoses. The aim of our study is to measure the awareness levels of family physicians for ADHD. A ‘questionnaire form’ was prepared in the Google Forms program, information about the study was added to the survey clearly and sent to family physicians via message. Question that physicians knew the most was whether adult ADHD was a treatable disease. 79% of physicians answered this question correctly. Questions evaluating whether it was known that patients with ADHD had low functionality, frequent problems with the law, high economic losses and high marital-partner problems, and approximately 84% of physicians answered negative. 87% of physicians stated that they had never actively participated in the follow-up and treatment of ADHD. 79% of physicians stated that they were not aware of the Adult ADHD diagnostic criteria. Another question in which physicians' awareness was determined to be low was whether it was known that ADHD diagnosis accompanied many psychiatric diseases, and 77% of physicians answered negative. Although the variety of symptoms, high frequency of additional diagnoses, lack of knowledge and experience of physicians regarding this disease and its symptoms cause difficulties in diagnosis and treatment planning, it is possible to increase the quality of life and functionality of patients and to improve the prognosis. For this reason, it will be of great importance for the patients diagnosed and under treatment by psychiatrists to be followed up by physicians in primary health care institutions.