Effects of methylphenidate in ADHD adults on target evaluation processing reflected by event-related potentials

Abstract

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a widely examined disease in childhood. There is evidence that the disease responds well to medication with methylphenidate (MPH). The effect of MPH in adults with ADHD is a question that is often raised, because many adults request such therapy today. As yet, there is a lack of studies on event-related potentials (ERPs) and MPH in ADHD adults. In the present study we examined 10 adults diagnosed with ADHD, with and without MPH medication (30 mg daily), by means of ERP in a visual Go/NoGo experiment to gain information about target evaluation processing in these patients and about the effects on these attentional processes during medication with MPH. Visually, there seem to be differences in the frontal electrodes for the N2 and in the parietal electrodes for the P300. But these differences do not achieve statistical significance. There are also no statistically relevant differences for the N1 or the slow wave. MPH does not seem to have an effect on target evaluation processing, when comparing the ERPs of non-medicated and medicated ADHD adults. Especially the P3 does not appear to be modulated by medication with MPH in these ADHD adults, in contrast to findings in ADHD children.