ADHD-combined Type Research Articles

Mechanisms of bodily harm in emergency department youths with ADHD

ObjectivesWe sought to perform a review of emergency department data to illuminate whether there is a difference in the prevalence of severe injuries in patients with ADHD compared to patients without ADHD. We hope to illuminate whether providers should consider inquiring whether their pediatric patients have ADHD to improve long term outcomes.MethodsThis study is a retrospective cohort study of patient records contained in the TriNetX database, specifically of pediatric patients in this database who presented to an emergency department. We specifically looked at the risk difference in patients <25 years of age with ADHD, no ADHD, inattentive type ADHD, hyperactive type ADHD, and combined type ADHD who presented with any fracture, a central fracture, an upper limb fracture, a lower limb fracture, an accidental overdose, a burn injury, a drowning incident, a gunshot wounds, suffocation, and a suicide attempt.ResultsComparison between the no-ADHD cohort and the inattentive, hyperactive/impulsive, combined, and overall ADHD cohorts revealed differences in the majority of outcomes studied. Patients with overall ADHD had significant differences in rates of all outcomes aside from the upper limb fracture. Patients with combined or hyperactive/impulsive ADHD had significant differences in all but drowning, and the inattentive cohort had significance all events.ConclusionThe stark difference between severe injury presentations in the pediatric emergency department between children with ADHD and without ADHD suggests that providers should consider inquiring whether patients have ADHD to educate them on their risk for severe injuries.

The relationship between disease symptoms and restless legs syndrome in adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder without iron deficiency

BackgroundThis study aimed to investigate the frequency of restless legs syndrome (RLS) and the affecting factors in the attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) group without iron deficiency. Drug-naive ADHD patients were included in the study. Patients without iron deficiency filled out the adult ADHD Self Reporting Scale, the Wender Utah Rating Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Beck Anxiety Inventory. Scale scores were compared in ADHD patients with and without RLS. Univariate and multivariate binary logistic regression analyses were used to determine the risk factors associated with RLS.ResultsA total of 120 ADHD patients participated in the study; 53 were predominantly inattentive ADHD patients (ADHD-I), and 67 were ADHD combined type (ADHD-C). RLS incidence was found to be 31.6%. ADHD symptoms, anxiety, and depression were found to be significantly more severe in patients with ADHD accompanying RLS. Also, anxiety and the presence of ADHD predicted RLS.ConclusionsThe presence of ADHD and accompanying anxiety was effective on RLS, regardless of iron deficiency. RLS is a comorbidity that frequently accompanies ADHD, and its diagnosis and treatment should not be ignored. This is the first study to investigate the frequency of RLS and accompanying factors by excluding iron deficiency in the ADHD group.

Parental ADHD and ASD symptoms and contributions of psychosocial risk to childhood ADHD and ASD symptoms in children born very preterm.

Examine maternal and paternal ADHD and ASD symptoms in relation to very preterm (VPT) and full-term (FT) children's ADHD and ASD symptoms. In this longitudinal study, maternal- and teacher-report of child ADHD and ASD symptoms were obtained for 119 children (VPT = 79, FT = 40) at age 5-years using the Conner's Rating Scale-Revised (CRS-R) and Social Responsiveness Scale-2 (SRS-2). A biological parent completed self- and observer-report CRS-R and SRS-2, and measures of mood/affect, stress, and social support to assess psychosocial distress. Data were analyzed using mixed-effect models adjusted for covariates. Child ADHD symptoms were associated with VPT birth, maternal distress, and maternal ADHD symptoms (p ≤ 0.02), and paternal ADHD symptoms (p < 0.001). Regarding ASD, VPT birth and parental ASD symptoms were associated with child ASD symptoms (p ≤ 0.009). Parental symptoms and birth group had no interaction. VPT birth and parental psychopathology represent independent risks for ADHD and ASD.

Dynamic Seat Assessment for Enabled Restlessness of Children with Learning Difficulties.

Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) face a range of learning difficulties in the school environment, thus several strategies have been developed to enhance or optimise their performance in school. One possible way is to actively enable appropriate restlessness using dynamic seats. In this paper, an assessment of the efficacy of a dynamic seat while solving school task is presented and compared to classic chair and therapy ball. To test the effectiveness of active seat, a study that examined task solving performance while observing the intensity of movement, in-seat behaviour and psychophysiological responses (electrodermal activity, facial temperature) was designed. A total of 23 school-aged children participated in the study, 11 children with a combined type of ADHD and 12 children without disorders. Children with ADHD achieved the best results when sitting in the active seat, where the most intense movement and best in-seat behaviour was observed. At the same time, psychophysiological parameters indicate that when performing better at the task children with ADHD were not too challenged and were consequently less agitated. Results have suggested that for a better cognitive performance of children with ADHD, it is crucial to provide a comfortable and pleasant workspace that enables them the right amount of restlessness.

Peer-Based Intervention for Socioemotional Concerns Among Children with ADHD.

This study examined the potential benefits of peer-based dyadic interventions for improving the socioemotional functioning of children with ADHD. Participants included children ages 8-12 diagnosed with ADHD-combined type (n = 34) pooled from a larger randomized study comparing peer-based dyadic interventions. Self-concept and depressive symptoms were evaluated at pre- and post-treatment using single group design. Results showed significantly positive child responses to intervention for self-concept. Further, improvements in self-concept were not moderated by the type of dyadic intervention received or by treatment related changes in externalizing behaviors. The severity of reported depressive symptoms, however, did not significantly change. This suggests therapeutic interaction with peers, as demonstrated in peer-based dyadic intervention models, can improve self-concept in children with ADHD even when socioemotional concerns are not a primary target of treatment and independent of behavioral outcomes achieved. These preliminary findings support promoting prosocial peer behavior as a critical domain for ADHD intervention for children.

A Case Study on EEG Analysis: Embedding Entropy Estimations Indicate the Decreased Neuro-Cortical Complexity Levels Mediated by Methylphenidate Treatment in Children with ADHD.

Objective: Complexity analysis is a method employed to understand the activity of the brain. The effect of methylphenidate (MPH) treatment on neuro-cortical complexity changes is still unknown. This study aimed to reveal how MPH treatment affects the brain complexity of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) using entropy-based quantitative EEG analysis. Three embedding entropy approaches were applied to short segments of both pre- and post- medication EEG series. EEG signals were recorded for 25 boys with combined type ADHD prior to the administration of MPH and at the end of the first month of the treatment. Results: In comparison to Approximate Entropy (ApEn) and Sample Entropy (SampEn), Permutation Entropy (PermEn) provided the most sensitive estimations in investigating the impact of MPH treatment. In detail, the considerable decrease in EEG complexity levels were observed at six cortical regions (F3, F4, P4, T3, T6, O2) with statistically significant level (p < .05). As well, PermEn provided the most meaningful associations at central lobes as follows: 1) The largeness of EEG complexity levels was moderately related to the severity of ADHD symptom detected at pre-treatment stage. 2) The percentage change in the severity of opposition as the symptom cluster was moderately reduced by the change in entropy. Conclusion: A significant decrease in entropy levels in the frontal region was detected in boys with combined type ADHD undergoing MPH treatment at resting-state mode. The changes in entropy correlated with pre-treatment general symptom severity of ADHD and conduct disorder symptom cluster severity.

State-Dependent Effective Connectivity in Resting-State fMRI.

The human brain at rest exhibits intrinsic dynamics transitioning among the multiple metastable states of the inter-regional functional connectivity. Accordingly, the demand for exploring the state-specific functional connectivity increases for a deeper understanding of mental diseases. Functional connectivity, however, lacks information about the directed causal influences among the brain regions, called effective connectivity. This study presents the dynamic causal modeling (DCM) framework to explore the state-dependent effective connectivity using spectral DCM for the resting-state functional MRI (rsfMRI). We established the sequence of brain states using the hidden Markov model with the multivariate autoregressive coefficients of rsfMRI, summarizing the functional connectivity. We decomposed the state-dependent effective connectivity using a parametric empirical Bayes scheme that models the effective connectivity of consecutive windows with the time course of the discrete states as regressors. We showed the plausibility of the state-dependent effective connectivity analysis in a simulation setting. To test the clinical applicability, we applied the proposed method to characterize the state- and subtype-dependent effective connectivity of the default mode network in children with combined-type attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD-C) compared with age-matched, typically developed children (TDC). All 88 children were subtyped according to the occupation times (i.e., dwell times) of the three dominant functional connectivity states, independently of clinical diagnosis. The state-dependent effective connectivity differences between ADHD-C and TDC according to the subtypes and those between the subtypes of ADHD-C were expressed mainly in self-inhibition, magnifying the importance of excitation inhibition balance in the subtyping. These findings provide a clear motivation for decomposing the state-dependent dynamic effective connectivity and state-dependent analysis of the directed coupling in exploring mental diseases.

Language Problems and ADHD Behaviors: Unique and Interactive Associations with School Readiness in a Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Preschool Sample.

This study examined the unique and interactive effects of receptive language ability and ADHD behaviors on six school readiness outcomes, over and above the effects of socioeconomic status, in 49 preschoolers (Mage = 3.98, SDage = .58; 53.06% female) recruited from Head Start-affiliated classrooms. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed unique positive associations between receptive language ability and cognitive and mathematics readiness, and unique negative associations between ADHD behaviors and social-emotional, physical, cognitive, and literacy readiness. Moderation analyses indicated that at higher, but not lower, levels of ADHD behaviors, lower receptive language ability was associated with lower social-emotional readiness. Results highlight that, when considered together, children's receptive language ability and ADHD behaviors vary in how they predict school readiness. Further, results provide preliminary evidence for ADHD behaviors as a risk factor in the association between receptive language deficits and social-emotional school readiness. Educational and clinical practice implications are discussed.

Association between Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and lower urinary tract symptoms in children and adolescents in a community setting.

ABSTRACTIntroduction:The present study aims to investigate the prevalence of lower tract urinary symptoms (LUTS) and symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and adolescents and their association in a community setting using validated scoring instruments.Materials and Methods:A cross-sectional study was carried out from February 2015 to December 2019, during which the parents or guardians of 431 children and adolescents from 5 to 13 years of age, attending a general pediatric outpatient clinic were interviewed.Results:The prevalence of ADHD symptoms and LUTS were 19.9% and 17.9%, respectively. Of the 82 children and adolescents with ADHD, 28% (23) had LUTS (OR 2.31, 95% CI 1.28 to 3.75, p=0.008). Mean total DVSS score in children in the group of children presenting ADHD symptom was significantly higher than those without ADHD symptom (10.2±4.85 vs. 4.9±2.95, p=0.002). Urgency prevailed among LUTS as the most frequent symptom reported by patients with ADHD symptoms (p=0.004). Analyzing all subscales of the DVSS, the items “When your child wants to pee, can't he wait? “Your child holds the pee by crossing his legs, crouching or dancing?” were higher in those with ADHD symptoms (p=0.01 and 0.02, respectively). Functional constipation was present in 36.4% of children with LUTS and 20.7% without LUTS (OR 4.3 95% CI 1-5.3 p=0.001).Conclusion:Children and adolescents with ADHD symptoms are 2.3 times more likely to have LUTS. The combined type of ADHD was the most prevalent among them.

Can Temperament and Character Traits Be Used in the Diagnostic Differentiation of Children With ADHD?

In this study, it was aimed to determine the contributions of temperament and character traits to the diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. Thirty-six patients between the ages of 9 and 14 with a diagnosis of combined type ADHD and 39 healthy children were included in the study. The Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime Version-Turkish Version and the Turgay DSM-IV Disruptive Behavior Disorders Rating Scale parent form were used to assess hyperactivity/impulsivity and inattentiveness, and comorbid disorders. The Junior Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised form was used to evaluate temperament-character traits. The classification-based association rules (CBARs) method was used for finding rules predicting ADHD accurately. Low persistence and self-directedness scores, and higher disorderliness and fatigability subgroup scores were found in the ADHD group. In CBARs, the separation of children with ADHD from healthy controls could be made with 0.83 accuracy, 0.80 sensitivity, and 0.86 specificity. The results of our study support the view that temperament-character traits can help clinical diagnosis of ADHD.

The State of Monoamine Activity in Children with Tyc Hyperkinesis and the Combined Type of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Aim: the primary purpose of this study was to explore the state of monoamine activity in children with tic disorder at a combined type of attention deficit disorder (ADHD). Patients and methods: 404 children aged 6–10 years with a combined type of ADHD were divided into three subgroups according to the monoamine activity: 1 subgroup with a combination of hypofunction of dopaminergic and hyperfunction of the noradrenergic system — 120 patients, 2 subgroup with a combination of hyperfunction of the noradrenergic system with a relative balance of dopamine — 136 patients, 3 subgroups with biochemical parameters of monoamine indicators within the reference values — 148 children. The levels of monoamines, their precursors and metabolic products in daily urine were determined by high performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection: dopamine, norepinephrine, adrenaline and serotonin, their metabolites — homovanilic acid, vanillylmandelic acid, 5-hydroxytryptophan and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid, and their precursors tryptophan and tyrosine. To assess the severity of the symptoms of ADHD, the SNAP-IV scale was used, and tic severity was determined using the Yale global tick severity scale. Results: сommon to all subgroups under consideration is characteristic that the severity of the tick correlates, fi rst, with increased impulsivity (1 subgroup р = 0.0001, 2 subgroup р = 0.045, 3 subgroup р = 0.015). The degree of manifestation of the main symptoms of ADHD in children has competitive behavior with tics, which is associated with decompensation of the biochemical balance of monoamine systems. In subgroup 1, there is an increase in the consumption of norepinephrine (p = 0.002) with a large formation of metabolites and a further weakening of the activity of the dopamine (p = 0.029) and serotonin (p = 0.038) systems. In subgroup 2, the dopamine system is deficient (p = 0.001) and the inhibitory function of the serotonin system increases (p = 0.003). In subgroup 3, the activity of the noradrenaline system increases with minimal participation of the dopamine system and a weakening of the influence of the serotonin system (p = 0.006). Conclusion: in cases of comorbidity of ADHD and tic disorder in children, observation revealed a change in the state of noradrenergic and dopamine systems and weakening of the inhibitory effect of serotonin, which probably has an effect on the general psychopathological profile.

Accurate Prediction of Children's ADHD Severity Using Family Burden Information: A Neural Lasso Approach.

The deep lasso algorithm (dlasso) is introduced as a neural version of the statistical linear lasso algorithm that holds benefits from both methodologies: feature selection and automatic optimization of the parameters (including the regularization parameter). This last property makes dlasso particularly attractive for feature selection on small samples. In the two first conducted experiments, it was observed that dlasso is capable of obtaining better performance than its non-neuronal version (traditional lasso), in terms of predictive error and correct variable selection. Once that dlasso performance has been assessed, it is used to determine whether it is possible to predict the severity of symptoms in children with ADHD from four scales that measure family burden, family functioning, parental satisfaction, and parental mental health. Results show that dlasso is able to predict parents' assessment of the severity of their children's inattention from only seven items from the previous scales. These items are related to parents' satisfaction and degree of parental burden.

Suicidal behaviors and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): a cross-sectional study among Chinese medical college students

BackgroundsAssociations between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) subtypes and suicidal behaviors remains unclear. The current study explored the prevalence of suicidal behaviors, and its association with ADHD among Chinese medical students.MethodsFive thousand six hundred ninety-three medical college students participated. Symptoms of suicidal behaviors, ADHD, anxiety, depression, tobacco and alcohol use were assessed using online questionnaires.ResultsThe prevalence of lifetime suicidal ideation, suicide plans, and suicide attempts among medical college students were 27.5, 7.9 and 14.8% respectively. Participants with ADHD predominantly inattentive type (ADHD-I) had more than fivefold increased odds of suicidal behaviors, the adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of ADHD-I and ADHD combined type (ADHD-C) remained significant after controlling for confounding factors.ConclusionsADHD is associated with high risk of suicidal behaviors. ADHD-I and ADHD-C were strongly associated with suicidal behaviors independent of comorbidities. The finding suggests the importance of addressing ADHD symptoms in suicide prevention.

Decrease in brain complexity with methylphenidate treatment in boys diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: An entropy-based qeeg analysis

IntroductionAttention deficit hyperactivity (ADHD) disorder is a common childhood neurodevelopmental disorder, and Methylphenidate (MPH) is a first-line therapeutic option for treating ADHD.However, how brain complexity and entropy changes with methylphenidate treatment the clinical implications of possible changes in entropy and the clinical implications of possible changes in entropy have yet to be studied.ObjectivesThis study aimed to reveal how the MPH treatment affects the complexity in the brain of children with ADHD by entropy-based qEEG analysis. In addition, the presence of the relationship between possible neurophysiological changes to be detected with clinical variables and how they are two other important questions of this study to be answered.MethodsDuring eyes-open resting, EEG signals were recorded from 25 boys with ADHD-combined type before MPH administration and at the end of the 1st month of the treatment. Approximate entropy (ApEn), sample entropy (SampEn), permutation entropy (PermEn) were used to analyse.ResultsA statistically significant decrease in entropy level was found with MPH treatment in the F4 channel according to approximate entropy (ApEn) and sample entropy (SampEn) analysis (p&lt;0.05). In addition, according to permutation entropy (PermEn) analysis, the decrease in entropy with MPH treatment in the regions indicated by F3, F4, P4, T3, T6, and O2 channels was found to be statistically significant (p &lt;0.05).ConclusionsThis is the first study to investigate how MPH treatment affects the complexity in the brain of children with ADHD. Entropy-based qEEG analysis may be a new method that can be used in diagnostic, clinical and prognostic predictions in ADHD.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

Increase in brain connectivity with methylphenidate treatment in boys diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: A coherence-based qeeg analysis

IntroductionAttention deficit hyperactivity (ADHD) disorder is a common childhood neurodevelopmental disorder, and Methylphenidate (MPH) is a first-line therapeutic option for treating ADHD.However, how brain connectivity changes with methylphenidate treatment have yet to be studied.ObjectivesThis study investigates how the MPH treatment affects the connectivity in the brain of children with ADHD by coherence-based qEEG analysis during rest.MethodsDuring eyes-open resting, EEG signals were recorded from 25 boys with ADHD-combined type before MPH administration and at the end of the 1st month of the treatment. Mutual Information (MI),Coherence Function (COH) and Phase Locking Value (PLV) were used to analyse the changes in brain connectivity.ResultsA statistically significant increase in connectivity level was found with MPH treatment between the F3-F4 channels, P3-P4 channels, F7-F8 channels and T5-T6 channels according to PLV, COH and MI analysis (p&lt;0.001).ConclusionsThis is the first study to investigate how MPH treatment affects the connectivity of the brain of children with ADHD. Coherence-based qEEG analysis may be a new method that can be used in diagnostic, clinical and prognostic predictions in ADHD.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

Resting state functional connectivity in adolescent synthetic cannabinoid users with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Synthetic cannabinoids (SCs) have become increasingly popular in recent years, especially among adolescents. The first aim of the current study was to examine resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) in SC users compared to controls. Our second aim was to examine the influence of comorbid attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptomatology on rsFC changes in SC users compared to controls. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) analysis included 25 SC users (14 without ADHD and 11 with ADHD combined type) and 12 control subjects. We found (i) higher rsFC between the default mode network (DMN) and salience network, dorsal attention network and cingulo-opercular network, and (ii) lower rsFC within the DMN and between the DMN and visual network in SC users compared to controls. There were no significant differences between SC users with ADHD and controls, nor were there any significant differences between SC users with and without ADHD. We found the first evidence of abnormalities within and between resting state networks in adolescent SC users without ADHD. In contrast, SC users with ADHD showed no differences compared to controls. These results suggest that comorbidity of ADHD and substance dependence may show different rsFC alterations than substance use alone.

Reinforcement and Compensatory Mechanisms in Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Systematic Review of Case-Control Studies.

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neuropsychological disorder that causes inattentiveness, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness in patients. Ventral striatal hypo-responsiveness, orbitofrontal cortex, and dopaminergic status in the brain are related to the pathogenesis of ADHD. Reinforcement tasks by monetary incentive delay (MID) was shown to produce more responsiveness in patients. In this study, we reviewed how reinforcement interventions and compensatory mechanisms affect the behavior of ADHD patients. This systematic review was undertaken as per the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis guidelines, and PubMed database was used for literature search.The quality appraisal was completed using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale, and nine case-control studies were included in this systematic review. A total of 976 participants were included, with 493 cases and 330 controls. The studies included discuss reinforcement, attention networks, and compensatory mechanisms. Our review concludes that reinforcement improves responsiveness to gain and loss of rewards in ADHD patients. Reward processing is selectively associated with the salience network. While ADHD, predominantly the inattentive type, is insensitive to stimuli, ADHD combined type and controls showed similar responsiveness. The right visual cortex may also be related to compensatory mechanisms in ADHD. As we only included case-control studies from the last eight years, in the English language, we might have missed some relevant studies related to this research. Because the included studies have a relatively small sample size, we recommend future studies to explore larger cohorts of patients to improve the reliability of findings pertinent to this field.

Child skills training for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): A randomized controlled trial of structured dyadic behavior therapy (SDBT).

This pilot study examined structured dyadic behavior therapy (SDBT) as a novel, child skills training intervention for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The purpose of this study was to (a) pilot the feasibility of SDBT, a manualized, child skills training intervention, (b) determine the potential clinical benefits of SDBT as an independent psychotherapy for ADHD, and (c) examine parents' intervention acceptability. Children of 8-12 years of age with ADHD-combined type (N = 34) were randomly assigned to either SDBT or an "attention control" condition receiving child-centered dyadic therapy (CCDT). SDBT targeted high-frequency behavioral and social demands often challenging for children with ADHD. CCDT provided nondirective, experiential psychotherapy without any contingency management methods. Descriptive data revealed a high level of treatment attendance and completion (90%) for both conditions. General linear modeling techniques (multivariate analysis of variance) examined group differences in ADHD outcomes. Results indicated statistically significant differences between the two groups, with greater ADHD symptom reduction for SDBT (Wilks' λ = .61), F(3, 30) = 6.36, p = .002, ηp² = .39. SDBT also demonstrated clinically meaningful changes, with ADHD symptom severity reduced below categorical levels of functional impairment. Despite superior behavioral outcomes for SDBT, intervention acceptability did not significantly differ for the two psychotherapies. Results support SDBT as a feasible, clinically promising, and acceptable intervention for ADHD. Parent satisfaction ratings suggest dyadic therapies may benefit participants beyond symptom reduction. Implications for intervention portability and treating ADHD without direct adult participation are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Brain structural and functional substrates of ADGRL3 (latrophilin 3) haplotype in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Previous studies have shown that the gene encoding the adhesion G protein-coupled receptor L3 (ADGRL3; formerly latrophilin 3, LPHN3) is associated with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Conversely, no studies have investigated the anatomical or functional brain substrates of ADGRL3 risk variants. We examined here whether individuals with different ADGRL3 haplotypes, including both patients with ADHD and healthy controls, showed differences in brain anatomy and function. We recruited and genotyped adult patients with combined type ADHD and healthy controls to achieve a sample balanced for age, sex, premorbid IQ, and three ADGRL3 haplotype groups (risk, protective, and others). The final sample (n = 128) underwent structural and functional brain imaging (voxel-based morphometry and n-back working memory fMRI). We analyzed the brain structural and functional effects of ADHD, haplotypes, and their interaction, covarying for age, sex, and medication. Individuals (patients or controls) with the protective haplotype showed strong, widespread hypo-activation in the frontal cortex extending to inferior temporal and fusiform gyri. Individuals (patients or controls) with the risk haplotype also showed hypo-activation, more focused in the right temporal cortex. Patients showed parietal hyper-activation. Disorder-haplotype interactions, as well as structural findings, were not statistically significant. To sum up, both protective and risk ADGRL3 haplotypes are associated with substantial brain hypo-activation during working memory tasks, stressing this gene’s relevance in cognitive brain function. Conversely, we did not find brain effects of the interactions between adult ADHD and ADGRL3 haplotypes.

Effects of biological determinist and interactionist causal explanations on undergraduate students' stigma of children with attention deficits hyperactivity disorders: An experimental investigation.

This experimental study examined the effects of biological explanations on individuals' stigma against children with ADHD. We randomly assigned 174 undergraduate students to read one of the three fictitious articles: the first article focused on the determining role of biology in affecting children's ADHD symptoms (biological determinist), the second article highlighted the interplay between biological and environmental factors (interactionist), and the third article was unrelated to ADHD (control). Analyses of variance showed that participants who read the biological determinist message, relative to the control group, were (a) less likely to blame the children for their problems, but (b) more likely to endorse fixed beliefs about the nature of ADHD (entity beliefs). Thus, the overall direct effect of biological determinist message on desire for social distance was not significant. By contrast, participants who read the interactionist message showed (a) less blame attribution and (b) lower levels of entity beliefs, which contributed to less desire for social distance. These findings suggest that (a) presenting biological information regarding ADHD in a deterministic way may not be an effective way to reduce stigma, whereas (b) providing an interactionist account of ADHD may undermine the potential negative effect of an exclusively biological explanation.