Attention Deficit Disorder With and Without Hyperactivity

While children may be reliably diagnosed as attention deficit disordered with hyperactivity or ADD/WO using behavioral measures, it would appear that they cannot be distinguished on these neurocognitive tasks.

Abstract

This study addressed the issue as to whether children reliably diagnosed as attention deficit disordered with hyperactivity (ADD/H) and without hyperactivity (ADD/WO) differed significantly from each other and a clinic control (CC) population on speed and efficiency of cognitive processing. From an outpatient clinic population, 43 ADD/H and 22 ADD/WO children were examined. An analysis of mean reaction time and speeded classification task performance revealed significant group effects on both mean reaction time and on a measure of within-subject variability. ADD/H children performed significantly more slowly and variably than the CC children on several of the speeded classification tasks. However, the ADD/WO group was not distinguished on any measure. Thus, while children may be reliably diagnosed as ADD/H or ADD/WO using behavioral measures, it would appear that they cannot be distinguished on these neurocognitive tasks. Issues related to childhood psychopathology and the neuropsychological basis of ADD/H are discussed.