Prenatal drug exposure and selective attention in preschoolers.

Noland JS, Singer LT, Short EJ, Minnes S, Arendt RE, Kirchner HL, Bearer C.

Vanderbilt University, Department of Psychology and Human Development, Peabody College #512, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN 37203-5701, USA. julia.noland@vanderbilt.edu

Neurotoxicol Teratol. 2005 May-Jun;27(3):429-38. Epub 2005 Mar 29.

Deficits in sustained attention and impulsivity have previously been demonstrated in preschoolers prenatally exposed to cocaine. We assessed an additional component of attention, selective attention, in a large, poly-substance cocaine-exposed cohort of 4 year olds and their at-risk comparison group. Employing postpartum maternal report and biological assay, we assigned children to overlapping exposed and complementary control groups for maternal use of cocaine, alcohol, marijuana, and cigarettes. Maternal pregnancy use of cocaine and use of cigarettes were both associated with increased commission errors, indicative of inferior selective attention. Severity of maternal use of marijuana during pregnancy was positively correlated with omission errors, suggesting impaired sustained attention. Substance exposure effects were independent of maternal postpartum psychological distress, birth mother cognitive functioning, current caregiver functioning, other substance exposures and child concurrent verbal IQ.

PMID: 15939203 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Childhood hyperactivity-inattention symptoms and smoking in adolescence.

Galera C, Fombonne E, Chastang JF, Bouvard M.

McGill University, Montreal children's Hospital, Child Psychiatry, Montreal, Canada. cedricgalera@yahoo.caDrug Alcohol Depend. 2005 Apr 4;78(1):101-8. Epub 2004 Nov 23.

BACKGROUND: The objective of the study was to examine in both genders the link between childhood hyperactivity-inattention symptoms (HI-s) and smoking in adolescence, controlling for psychopathology, temperament and environmental risk factors.

METHODS: Subjects (421 males, 495 females), aged 7 to 18, were recruited in the GAZEL cohort representative of the general population and surveyed in 1991 and 1999. Parent and adolescent self-report measures were used to assess child psychopathology and smoking patterns. Logistic regression was used to assess the effects of childhood hyperactivity-inattention symptoms and other predictors on adolescent smoking.

RESULTS: In females, hyperactivity-inattention symptoms contributed independently to subsequent daily smoking (OR=1.98, p=0.04). In males, hyperactivity-inattention symptoms alone did not increase the risk for smoking. Conduct disorder symptoms was an important predictor in males (OR=2.95, p<0.01) and females (OR=1.75, p=0.09). The risk of adolescent smoking was significantly increased in boys with high activity level (OR=1.70, p=0.03) and decreased in shy girls (OR=0.60, p=0.02). Parental smoking increased the liability to smoking in their offspring (males: OR=1.96, p<0.01; females: OR=1.63, p=0.02).

CONCLUSIONS: If replicated, these findings suggest a role for smoking prevention in girls with hyperactivity-inattention symptoms and in boys with high activity level.

PMID: 15769563 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Some evidence for distinctive language use by children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Mathers M.

School of Language and Media, Faculty of Education and Arts, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia. margaret.mathers@studentmail.newcastle.edu.au

Clin Linguist Phon. 2005 Apr-May;19(3):215-25.

This paper reports early findings from a wider study that sought to test the hypothesis that differences in language use exist between children who have a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and their non-ADHD peers. Twenty-two, 8 to 12 year-old children (11 with a diagnosis of ADHD and 11 matched peers) comprised the community-based sample. There were nine boys and two girls in each group. All the children were ranked at least average for their language ability on standardised language testing. This case-control study used an approach derived from Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to examine and then compare spoken and written elicited language samples. SFL was thought to be particularly suitable because of its potential to richly describe language in use while taking contextual variation into account. Statistically significant overall differences between the subject and the control groups were found for the measure of grammatical intricacy (GI). Further analyses revealed these differences to be largely attributed to differences between group scores for written material. Discussion explores the potential relevance of these findings to the clinical evaluation of language ability in young school-aged children who have been diagnosed with ADHD.

PMID: 15823957 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder comorbidity in a school sample of children.

[Article in Portuguese]

Possa Mde A, Spanemberg L, Guardiola A.

Servico de Psiquiatria, Hospital das Clinicas de Porto Alegre. mariannepossa02@yahoo.com.br

Arq Neuropsiquiatr. 2005 Jun;63(2B):479-83. Epub 2005 Jul 25.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the frequency of conduct disorder (CD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

METHOD: This study was performed with children between 7 and 11 years old who fit the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria (n=35) to ADHD, normal neurologic examination and abnormal evolutionary neurological examination (ENE) by Lefevre. Parents answered a questionnaire with DSM-IV criteria to ADHD and comorbidities.

RESULT: ADHD combined subtype was the most prevalent (51.4%). Fourteen (40%) had CD, including two with both CD and OCD. Five (14.2%) had only ODD and one (2.8%) only OCD. Eleven of fourteen children (78.5%) with CD had also ADHD combined subtype, with significant statistical difference (p<0.05). Eleven of fifteen children (73.3%) without comorbidity had inattentive or hyperactive subtype (p<0.05).

CONCLUSION: The frequency of association between CD and ADHD was high, much more in combined subtype.

PMID: 16059602 [PubMed - in process]

Tapping and anticipation performance in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Toplak ME, Tannock R.

Psychology Department, York University.

Percept Mot Skills. 2005 Jun;100(3 Pt 1):659-75.

The objective of this study was to examine the precise timing of a motor response in a sample of adolescents with ADHD and comparison participants. 46 participants with ADHD (M age=15.6, SD=1.4; 40 boys) and 44 control participants (M age=15.3, SD=1.4; 40 boys) were recruited through a metropolitan hospital. Participants were administered a tapping task and an anticipation task. Adolescents with ADHD displayed significantly more intra-individual variability on the visual 1000-msec. frequency interval of the tapping task and displayed lower accuracy on the cued and uncued trials of the anticipation task than comparison participants. Intra-individual variability on the tapping task was correlated with intra-individual variability on the anticipation task within both the ADHD and control groups. These findings suggest that adolescents with ADHD have impairments in both the cognitive representation and motor production of the precise timing of a motor response.

PMID: 16060425 [PubMed - in process]