| Summary: | Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a relatively common psychiatric
disorder that is characterized by inappropriate levels of inattention and/or hyperactive-impulsive
behaviours. Although stimulant medication is known to be an effective way to manage ADHD
symptoms for adolescents with the disorder, there has been a lack of research into behaviours that
may compromise the effectiveness, of this treatment, such as nonadherence to the medication. This
study was designed to investigate the association between parent and adolescent reported rates of
adherence and rationally derived factors that were hypothesized to relate to adherence amongst
adolescents with ADHD. In this study, none of the rationally derived factors that showed
adequate evidence for internal reliability (i.e., perceived barriers to medication taking, perceived
benefits to medication taking, individual characteristics, and social influences) correlated With or
predicted adherence reports for 29 adolescents prescribed medication for ADHD symptoms.
Exploratory analyses revealed that two items from the interview used were correlated with
adherence reports; these indicated that adolescents who perceived their medication as addictable
were less adherent, and adolescents who perceive their disorder as heritable were more adherent.
Adherence reports also correlated with parent reported symptoms of anxiety and depression. The
two items identified by the exploratory analyses, in addition to the parent reported
anxious/depressed symptoms, accounted for 23% of the variance in adherence reports. Another
interesting result was the high rates of reported adherence, in contrast to low rates that were
expected. Possible explanations for these results, in addition to directions for future research in
this area, are discussed.
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