School and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

This work presents the results of a systematic search in the most important bibliographic databases in order to answer some clinical questions related to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), school and learning impairment: do children with ADHD have learning, emotional or social impairments?, which are these impairments and who detects them?, do treatments at school have any role at improving the outcome?, what level of evidence have the proposed answers? The results indicate that there is ample evidence that children identified as having ADHD have significant impairments in psychosocial and academic functioning, learning disorders, emotional problems and psychosocial problems, that can impact on child?s functioning. They can be accurately detected by the teacher at school. The underlying principle of successful management includes multiple treatment modalities to address the multidimensional nature of the disorder. A glossary of terms of the school environment is included. Primary Care paediatricians can be unfamiliar with these terms. We also describe a project as an example of cooperation among schools and a health centre in a population located in the surroundings of Madrid.