Reliability and validity of the German short version of the Wender-Utah Rating Scale for the retrospective assessment of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder

The diagnosis of adult attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) requires the retrospective assessment of AND symptoms in childhood. The Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS) is helpful in, detecting ADHD-associated symptomatology in childhood. A German short version (WURS-k) of this instrument has been made available recently. In the present study, we investigated the validity of the WURS-k. In a population of 63 adult AND patients (according to ICD-10 and DSM-IV criteria) and 1,303 male controls, ROC analysis indicated a sensitivity of 85% and specificity of 76% at a cutoff of 30 points. In ADHD patients, seven individual factors explained 70.3% of the variance. The highest diagnostic precision was demonstrated using the WURS-k total score. The seven extracted factors of the WURS-k did not differ in diagnostic value. Significant correlations were found between impulsivity according to, Eysenck's Impulsivity Questionnaire (EIQ) and excitability, aggression, emotional lability and satisfaction on the Freiburg Personality Inventory (FPI-R) in AND patients. Concerning a 30-50% persistence of ADHD symptomatology in adults, these correlations underline the diagnostic validity of the WURS-k. The scale manifested excellent internal consistence (alpha=0.91) and a split-half correlation of r(12)=0.85.