Evaluation of the Indicators of Inflammation in Children and Adolescents with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder: Effect of Sex and Subtype

Abstract

Aim: It was aimed to evaluate the hematological inflammatory markers in treatment-naive and comorbidity-free children and adolescents with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in this study.Material and Methods: One hundred sixty-nine children aged 6-18, who were diagnosed with ADHD according to DSM-5 criteria were included in the study. Age and sex-matched 59 healthy children without any psychiatric and/or medical disorder were included as a control group. The children who had an intellectual disability and/or autism spectrum disorder, acute, chronic or inflammatory diseases were excluded from the study. Smoking, obesity and using psychotropic medications and lack of data in records were other exclusion criteria. ADHD and control groups were compared in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, inflammatory markers and hematological parameters.Results: Mean platelet volume (MPV) and Basophil (BASO) levels were significantly higher in the ADHD group compared to the control group and this statistical difference was only observed for boys. In hyperactivity subtype, red cell distribution width (RDW), lymphocyte (LYMPH) and monocytes (MONO) were higher; in attention deficit subtype mean platelet volume-to-lymphocyte ratio (MPVLR) was higher than all other subtypes and control group. MPV was similar in three subtypes, and were higher in all of them than the control group.Conclusion: This study revealed that MPV and BASO tend to be higher in the ADHD group especially in boys. Hematological biomarkers may be useful for diagnosis of ADHD and determination of ADHD subtypes but data on this subject are insufficient and more comprehensive studies are needed.