Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Behavioral or Neuro-developmental Disorder? Testing the HiTOP Framework Using Machine Learning Methods

In current study, we aimed to investigate if Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is better to be categorized among behavioral or neurodevelopmental disorders, based on some familial and environmental factors. 

We conducted correlation analysis to identify psychiatric disorders in the dataset which have an important impact on ADHD. Also, we used machine learning-based approaches combined with a feature selection algorithm to cluster and classify ADHD as a behavioral or neurodevelopmental disorder.

Model evaluation showed that ADHD is clustered in the group of behavioral disorders with the accuracy of 78%. Furthermore, Support Vector Machine (SVM) classified ADHD as a behavioral disorder with the accuracy of 72.66% and as a neurodevelopmental disorder with the accuracy of 60.07%.

In sum, we can say that our findings support categorizations systems like HiTOP in comparison to DSM-5. However, as biological factors were not included in our analysis, it should be considered with caution and examined in future researches.