HYPERKINETIC DISORDERS IN SEVEN‐YEAR‐OLD CHILDREN WITH PERCEPTUAL, MOTOR AND ATTENTIONAL DEFICITS

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Abstract
Summary One hundred and forty-one seven-year-old Swedish children took part in an extensive neuropsychiatric study involving total population samples of children who had shown perceptual, motor and attentional deficits in pre-school, and blindly examined comparison children. The present paper reports on generalized hyper-kinesis, i.e. hyperactivity in the child in all of three different assessment settings. About a third of children diagnosed according to strict criteria as suffering from ‘Minimal Brain Dysfunction’ showed generalized hyperkinesis. In children without perceptual-motor deficits, hyperkinesis was very much rarer. A total population frequency for generalized hyperkinesis in the range of 1–3% is reported as probable. Heredity for delayed maturation, non-optimal pre-, peri- and neonatal factors and adverse psychosocial factors were found to interact in the shaping of the disorder.