Previous research has suggested that there is substantial heterogeneity in the developmental trajectories of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms. Sometimes, qualitative distinctions between trajectories with different ages of onset and/or patterns of remission are made; however, little is known about the predictors and broader clinical meaningfulness of these candidate ‘developmental subtypes’ of ADHD symptoms.

We applied latent class growth analysis to data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS; N = 11 316; ages 3, 5, 7, 11 and 14) to evaluate whether developmental trajectories of ADHD symptoms differing in early life predictors could be identified. Our optimal model included six trajectory groups, labelled unaffected (34.9% of the sample), mildly affected (24.1%), subclinical remitting (12.8%), pre-school onset partially remitting (14.1%), developmentally increasing (7.6%) and pre-school onset persistent (6.4%).

Factors such as gender, conduct problems, cognitive ability, maternal education, premature birth, peer problems and school readiness scores differentiated between specific ADHD symptom trajectories.

Taken together, our findings provide preliminary evidence that distinguishing different trajectories of ADHD symptoms could be clinically informative.

先前的研究表明，注意力缺陷/多动障碍（ADHD）症状的发展轨迹存在很大的异质性。有时，不同发病年龄和/或缓解模式的轨迹之间会有定性区别；然而，人们对 ADHD 症状的这些候选“发育亚型”的预测因素和更广泛的临床意义知之甚少。

我们对英国千禧队列研究（MCS； N = 11 316；年龄 3、5、7、11 和 14 岁）的数据应用了潜在类别增长分析，以评估是否可以识别早期生命预测因子中不同的 ADHD 症状的发展轨迹。我们的最佳模型包括六个轨迹组，标记为未受影响（样本的 34.9%）、轻度受影响（24.1%）、亚临床缓解（12.8%）、学前发病部分缓解（14.1%）、发育增加（7.6%）和学前发病持续存在（6.4%）。

性别、行为问题、认知能力、母亲教育、早产、同伴问题和入学准备分数等因素区分了特定的多动症症状轨迹。

总而言之，我们的研究结果提供了初步证据，表明区分 ADHD 症状的不同轨迹可能具有临床信息。