Corrélats cognitifs et relationnels associés aux troubles de l’attention avec/sans hyperactivité

Abstract

Objective To retrospectively examine visual attention performances and early parent–child relationship characteristics in an OPD clinical sample of ADHD youths. Method The sample included 20 hyperactive drug naïve youths consecutively referred for attention evaluation to a Child & Adolescent Psychiatry OPD between 2004 and 2006. Demographic and clinical data were collected through a chart review process whereas attentional performances were independently assessed using the Conners's Continuous Performance Task device (CPT-II). Early parent–child relationships data were ascertained through the team consensus best-estimate procedure with respect to Berger's psychoanalytically-derived classification. Results Sixty percent of the sample presented with a DSM-IV-TR inattentive ( n = 1) or mixed ( n = 11) ADHD subtype whereas others participants displayed ADHD nos. Reaction Time (RT) variability was negatively correlated with age and was significantly associated with the DSM–IV-TR ADHD group. Taken separately, none of the Berger's correlates was correlated with either the clinical picture or the CPT performances. However, a composite score of early mother–child adversity was significantly associated with the DSM IV-TR ADHD group and not with the RT variability. Conclusion Our results are consistent with current literature which shows that a high variability in RT is associated with ADHD. However, no association was found between those early nurturing disturbances and cognitive variables such as RT overvariability.