Objective: In clinical practice the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised Form (WISC-R) is a frequently used instrument for the identification of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). In order to observe the discriminative power of WISC-R profiles for ADHD, this study aimed to compare WISC-R performance of 3 groups (children with ADHD, children with different psychiatric diagnoses, children with no psychiatric diagnosis).

Method: Participants ranged in age from 6 to 16 years. The study included 59 children with ADHD and 51 children with different psychiatric diagnoses whose data were obtained from their files at the Hacettepe University Hospital, Department of Child Mental Health Services. The data of 43 other children were obtained from a previous study conducted at the same hospital in which they were found to have no psychiatric diagnosis.

Results: WISC-R profiles of these 3 groups were compared via MANOVA. Results of the analyses indicated that in general, WISC-R profiles of children with no diagnosis were higher than both children with ADHD and those with different psychiatric diagnoses. On the other hand, WISC-R profiles of children with ADHD and children with different psychiatric diagnoses did not significantly differ from each other.

Conclusion: These results indicated that WISC-R profiles discriminate children without any psychiatric diagnosis from those with a psychiatric diagnosis; however, this discrimination is not specific to ADHD. Thus, it is proposed that WISC-R by itself may not be an adequate assessment device for the identification of ADHD, and diagnosis made solely on the basis of WISC-R profiles may not be accurate.