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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2023 Feb 1.
Published in final edited form as: Am J Psychiatry. 2021 Aug 13;179(2):142–151. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2021.21010032

Table 3.

Patterns of Full Remission, Recurrence, and Recovery from ADHD in the MTA ADHD Group (n=558)

Subsample Total sample (N=558)

n % %
Full remission at any assessment 175 31.4 31.4
Full remission at any assessment (n=175)
  One assessment 85 48.6 15.2
  Multiple assessments 90 51.4 16.1
Full remission at any assessment (n=175)
  No recurrence 42 24.0 7.5
  Partial recurrencea 53 30.3 9.5
  Full recurrenceb 51 29.1 9.1
  Unable to judge recurrencec 29 16.6 5.2
Years from Remission Detection to Recurrence Detection M(SD) 2.60 1.22 --
Recoverye 51 9.1 9.1
Duration of recovery period (n=51)
  Two years 18 35.3 3.2
  Four years 17 33.3 3.0
  Six years 7 13.7 1.3
  Eight years 6 11.8 1.1
  Ten or more years 3 5.9 0.5
Onset of recovery (n=51)
  Childhood (under 12) 1 2.0 0.2
  Adolescence (12 to 17.99) 11 21.5 2.0
  Adulthood (18 or over) 39 76.5 7.0
a

Met criteria for partial remission after initial episode of full remission

b

Met full criteria for ADHD after initial episode of full remission

c

Recurrence could not be judged when remission solely occurred at final time point

d

Demonstrated full remission of ADHD, followed by partial or full recurrence, followed by a second episode of full remission (i.e., ADHD, full Remission, Recurrence, full Remission).

e

Recovery was defined as full remission that persisted for at least two consecutive assessments without being followed by a recurrence (includes both first episodes of remission or recurrent episodes that meet this criteria). Eight cases that were classified as recovered experienced full remission followed by partial or full recurrence, and finally a second period of full remission that led to recovery, whereas 42 experienced no recurrence after the initial episode of full remission.