Exposure to potentially traumatic events and associated mental health problems in children referred for assessment for ADHD and/or autism

There is a risk of diagnostic overshadowing between traumatic stress reactions and ADHD and autism. The prevalence of potentially traumatic events (PTE) and associated posttraumatic mental health problems was investigated among children referred for assessment for ADHD and autism at the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Sweden. The study included 62 Swedish children (34 boys, 28 girls) between the ages 8-16. The children self-reported the prevalence of PTEs and associated stress reactions on Life Incident of Traumatic Event (LITE), Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC), and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires (SDQ), at an appointment with a licensed psychologist. Sex and age differences were analyzed, and the results were compared with Swedish norms for children when possible. The children in this study reported a high prevalence of PTEs on LITE, and half of the girls reported scores above the clinical cut-off on the TSCC scale, post-traumatic stress reactions, as well as significantly higher scores (M = 60.87) in comparison to the boys (M = 35.94). Most children (74.2%) scored above the SDQ cut-off value for total difficulties. Conclusively, children referred for assessment for ADHD and autism report high levels of exposure to PTEs and post-traumatic stress symptoms. This calls for immediate action in overseeing the procedures and reliability for trauma screening and strategies to protect these children from exposure to PTEs.