A-08 Aggressive Presentation of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A SPECT Study

Abstract

Abstract Objective Explore the effects of aggression in adults diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) on regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF). Method Participants were extracted from an archival de-identified SPECT database (n = 889,Mage = 36.73, 60.4% male, 71.6% Caucasian). Two groups were formed based on self-reported aggressive symptoms: low (below 25th percentile; n = 396) and high aggression (above 75th percentile; n = 435). Results Age was used as a covariate. One-way ANCOVA’s were conducted controlling for age (alpha = .01). Significant differences were found between groups in the left (F[1,829] = 5.755, ) and right (F[1,829] = 6.114) limbic regions, left basal ganglia (F[1,829] = 4.006, p = .046), left occipital (F[1,829] = 3.951,p = .047), and right parietal regions (F[1,829] = 4.341,p = .038). Discussion: Results revealed that individuals with ADHD and high aggression failed to have significantly different levels of rCBF in areas of the brain responsible for emotion regulation compared to those with low aggression. This study is the first to explore differences in rCBF in a sample of individuals with ADHD. It was hypothesized that higher activation in the limbic and basal ganglia areas was the process of experiencing highly emotional/distressing feelings and the process of acting upon these emotional experiences. However, SPECT failed to present as a reliable resource for identifying individuals with ADHD that have aggressive and impulsive tendencies in this study. Thus, it is suggested that clinicians use caution when using SPECT as a resource in identifying populations likely to engage in aggressive and highly dangerous acts (i.e., suicide/homicide). Further research is needed in using SPECT to identify ADHD populations which may be likely to engaged in aggressive and highly dangerous acts.