Review article
Genetics of adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

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Family studies

Family studies consistently support the assertion that ADHD runs in families [7]. Eight studies provided information about rates of ADHD among the parents of ADHD probands [8]. Early studies of hyperactivity [9], [10] and subsequent studies of attention-deficit disorder (ADD) and ADHD [11], [12], [13], [14] offer agreement with each other. These studies find the parents of ADHD children to have a two- to eightfold increase in the risk for ADHD. Thus, they confirm the familiality of ADHD, also

The genetics of persistent attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

If adult ADHD is valid, it would be expected that the children of adults with ADHD would have an elevated prevalence of ADHD [8], [105]. This has been found by the two extant family studies of adult ADHD [18], [106]. These studies produced the same result: the risk of ADHD among children born to adults with ADHD was much higher than the risk for ADHD among relatives of children with ADHD. For example, a 57% prevalence of ADHD among children born to adults with ADHD was found, which was much

Discussion

The delineation of genetic and environmental factors that contribute to the pathophysiology of ADHD has potentially important clinical, scientific, and public health implications. Such efforts can help identify etiologic risk factors associated with the disorder and can characterize early predictors of persistence and morbidity.

Results of behavioral genetic investigations using family twin and adoption studies converge with those of molecular genetic studies in showing that genes influence

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      Twin studies, which identified the concordance rates between monozygotic and dizygotic twins, estimate that the overall heritability of ADHD is 76% (Faraone et al., 2005), which is one of the highest among psychiatric disorders (Faraone and Mick, 2010). Parents of ADHD children have a two- to eight-fold higher risk of having ADHD (Faraone, 2004), and there is a 30% prevalence of ADHD among siblings of ADHD children (Young, 2011), much higher than the prevalence of 8 to 12% in the general population (Faraone et al., 2003). Studies on candidate genes for ADHD have mainly focused on genes involving the dopaminergic system, therefore those involving the noradrenergic system have received less attention.

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      Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common developmental disorder with characteristic symptoms of age-inappropriate hyperactivity, impulsivity and poor sustained attention (American Psychological Association, 2013). Past research has indicated that both genetic and environmental factors contribute to the aetiology of ADHD and more specifically that early environmental adversity is associated with a diagnosis of ADHD (Faraone, 2004; Biederman and Faraone, 2005). Carriers of the val66met allele, a valine to methionine single nucleotide polymorphism affecting intracellular trafficking and secretion of brain derived neurotrophic factor, are at increased risk of developing ADHD when raised in families of low socioeconomic status (Lasky-Su et al., 2007; Taylor et al., 2011).

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