Trouble déficitaire de l'attention avec hyperactivité : premiers résultats psychodynamiques d'une étude croisée

Abstract

The authors present the first results of pluridisciplinary research concerning the study of the way children's mind diagnosed Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) work. The psychodynamic and neuropsychological approaches, often viewed as opposed, have received the same methodology so as to determine the profile of this section of the population, and the most appropriate types of treatment with their short and medium term effects. Twenty-five hyperactive children have benefited from 6 months of the first stage of both psychodynamic and neuropsychological evaluations. The psychodynamic evaluation treated in this article, is based on a methodology comprising clinical interview and projective tests (Rorschach and TAT or CAT). Their protocols have been analysed according to the views of French school, which takes its inspiration from the psychoanalytical conception of the mind. The first results of the neuropsychological tests, corroborated by the psychodynamic evaluation, show that the symptoms of the dual relationship have been attenuated for some of the children. Moreover, the projective tests reveal that most of the children's feeling of identity and their internal representations are fragile, but no deficiencies as regard their adaptation to reality. Those elements confirm these children's difficulty with autonomy and how necessary it is to help them build up, concretely continuity in their relational investments. Although it is fundamental to attenuate their symptoms — and medication is instrumental in this — it is nevertheless necessary to offer interpersonal treatment on which the child can rely.