Wildland Firefighters and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (adhd)

—Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common disorders of childhood, affecting 3 to 7 percent of the population (American Psychiatric Association 2000). Research has indicated that the prevalence rate of ADHD in adult populations is approximately 4.4 percent and that the majority of those cases go untreated (Kessler et al. 2006). To date, no known research has investigated the rate of ADHD in wildland firefighters, or the implications it may have for this population. For this study, 302 wildland firefighters representing a diverse array of firefighting resource types took the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS v1.1). Almost one in five respondents (19.5 percent) had scores that suggested the presence of ADHD and associated symptoms. Additional studies are needed to investigate ADHD within the wildland firefighting community. 1.0 INTRODUCTION Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) affects between 3 and 7 percent of the American child population, making it one of the most common disorders of childhood (American Psychiatric Association 2000). Variations in this percentage are partly attributable to the different sources and assessment devices that health professionals use when diagnosing it (Committee on Quality Improvement 2000). If the higher percentages of prevalence rates are correct, nearly 10 million Americans have the disorder. The hallmark criteria of ADHD are inattention, impulsiveness, and hyperactivity, some or all of which might be present in a diagnosed individual. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-IV (DSM-IV) of the American Psychiatric Association, ADHD is categorized in one of three ways: ADHD Combined Type (features both inattention and hyperactivityimpulsivity components), ADHD Predominantly Inattentive Type, or ADHD Predominantly Hyperactive Type. The recommended diagnostic evaluation for children (and adults) suspected to have ADHD entails completion of a psychiatric interview, rating scales from multiple informants, and individually tailored psychological testing (Schweitzer et al. 2001). However, the Adult Self-Report Scale version 1.1 (ASRS v1.1) screening assessment, which was used in this research, has been shown to be an effective instrument in identifying individuals at high risk for ADHD (Adler et al. 2010). Boys are diagnosed with ADHD more frequently than are girls, with the ratio varying from 2:1 to :1 depending on the categorized DSM-IV type (American Psychiatric Association 2000). Over the course of their lifetimes, children with ADHD are at increased risk for academic failure, behavioral problems, substance