Among 100 participants in a Department of Veterans Affairs domiciliary
program for chronic mentally ill homeless veterans who were consecutively
referred for psychiatric consultation, 81 who were not psychotic and did
not have central nervous system damage were screened for attention-deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The screening instrument was a four-item
questionnaire. Fifty of the 81 participants screened positive, yet none of
the patients or their clinicians had considered ADHD a possible influence
on their lives. The study results suggest that clinical staff working with
homeless veterans should receive better training in recognizing the various
presentations of ADHD among adults.
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