Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder : what can teachers do?

Los niños con trastorno de déficit de atención e hiperactividad (ADHD) pueden experimentar a menudo fracaso escolar, expulsión escolar y problemas emocionales, conductuales y sociales. Para desmitificar esta disfunción, este manual ayuda a comprenderla y a manejarla, a adoptar las estrategias educativas y los enfoques de gestión del comportamiento más adecuados para cada niño. También explora el uso de los tratamientos alternativos, tales como estrategias psicológicas y psiquiátricas, medicamentos, asesoramiento, entrenamiento y cambios en la dieta, lo que permite ofrecer a los niños un futuro más positivo.

Influence of the symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and comorbid disorders on functioning in adulthood

Resumen basado en el de la publicaci??n

Proprioceptive diagnostics in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Resumen tomado de la publicaci??n

Medication and creativity in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Resumen tomado de la publicaci??n

Impulsiveness as a timing disturbance: neurocognitive abnormalities in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder during temporal processes and normalization with methylphenidate.

We argue that impulsiveness is characterized by compromised timing functions such as premature motor timing, decreased tolerance to delays, poor temporal foresight and steeper temporal discounting. A model illustration for the association between impulsiveness and timing deficits is the impulsiveness disorder of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Children with ADHD have deficits in timing processes of several temporal domains and the neural substrates of these compromised timing functions are strikingly similar to the neuropathology of ADHD. We review our published and present novel functional magnetic resonance imaging data to demonstrate that ADHD children show dysfunctions in key timing regions of prefrontal, cingulate, striatal and cerebellar location during temporal processes of several time domains including time discrimination of milliseconds, motor timing to seconds and temporal discounting of longer time intervals. Given that impulsiveness, timing abnormalities and more specifically ADHD have been related to dopamine dysregulation, we tested for and demonstrated a normalization effect of all brain dysfunctions in ADHD children during time discrimination with the dopamine agonist and treatment of choice, methylphenidate. This review together with the new empirical findings demonstrates that neurocognitive dysfunctions in temporal processes are crucial to the impulsiveness disorder of ADHD and provides first evidence for normalization with a dopamine reuptake inhibitor.

Disorder-specific functional abnormalities during sustained attention in youth with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and with Autism

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are often comorbid and share behavioural-cognitive abnormalities in sustained attention. A key question is whether this shared cognitive phenotype is based on common or different underlying pathophysiologies. To elucidate this question, we compared 20 boys with ADHD to 20 age and IQ matched ASD and 20 healthy boys using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a parametrically modulated vigilance task with a progressively increasing load of sustained attention. ADHD and ASD boys had significantly reduced activation relative to controls in bilateral striato–thalamic regions, left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and superior parietal cortex. Both groups also displayed significantly increased precuneus activation relative to controls. Precuneus was negatively correlated with the DLPFC activation, and progressively more deactivated with increasing attention load in controls, but not patients, suggesting problems with deactivation of a task-related default mode network in both disorders. However, left DLPFC underactivation was significantly more pronounced in ADHD relative to ASD boys, which furthermore was associated with sustained performance measures that were only impaired in ADHD patients. ASD boys, on the other hand, had disorder-specific enhanced cerebellar activation relative to both ADHD and control boys, presumably reflecting compensation. The findings show that ADHD and ASD boys have both shared and disorder-specific abnormalities in brain function during sustained attention. Shared deficits were in fronto–striato–parietal activation and default mode suppression. Differences were a more severe DLPFC dysfunction in ADHD and a disorder-specific fronto–striato–cerebellar dysregulation in ASD.

Disorder-specific functional abnormalities during temporal discounting in youth with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism and comorbid ADHD and Autism

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are often comorbid and share cognitive abnormalities in temporal foresight. A key question is whether shared cognitive phenotypes are based on common or different underlying pathophysiologies and whether comorbid patients have additive neurofunctional deficits, resemble one of the disorders or have a different pathophysiology. We compared age- and IQ-matched boys with non-comorbid ADHD (18), non-comorbid ASD (15), comorbid ADHD and ASD (13) and healthy controls (18) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a temporal discounting task. Only the ASD and the comorbid groups discounted delayed rewards more steeply. The fMRI data showed both shared and disorder-specific abnormalities in the three groups relative to controls in their brain-behaviour associations. The comorbid group showed both unique and more severe brain-discounting associations than controls and the non-comorbid patient groups in temporal discounting areas of ventromedial and lateral prefrontal cortex, ventral striatum and anterior cingulate, suggesting that comorbidity is neither an endophenocopy of the two pure disorders nor an additive pathology.

Gaze pursuit and arm control of adolescent males diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and normal controls: evidence of a dissociation in processing visual information of short and long duration

Three-dimensional kinematic analysis of line of gaze, arm and ball was used to describe the visual and motor behaviour of male adolescents diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The ADHD participants were tested when both on (ADHD-On) and off (ADHD-Off) their medication and compared to age-matched normal controls in a modified table tennis task that required tracking the ball and hitting to cued right and left targets. Long-duration information was provided by a pre-cue, in which the target was illuminated approximately 2 s before the serve, and short-duration information by an early-cue illuminated about 350 ms after the serve, leaving -500 ms to select the target and perform the action. The ADHD groups differed significantly from the control group in both the pre-cue and early-cue conditions in being less accurate, in having a later onset and duration of pursuit tracking, and a higher frequency of gaze on and off the ball. The use of medication significantly reduced the gaze frequency of the ADHD participants, but surprisingly this did not lead to an increase in pursuit tracking, suggesting a barrier was reached beyond which ball flight information could not be processed. The control and ADHD groups did not differ in arm movement onset, duration and velocity in the short-duration early-cue condition; in the long-duration pre-cue condition, however, the ADHD group's movement time onset and arm velocity differed significantly from controls. The results show that the ADHD groups were able to process short-duration information without experiencing adverse effects on their motor behaviour; however, long-duration information contributed to irregular movement control.

Effects of low doses of polyunsaturated fatty acids on the attention deficit/Hyperactivity disorder of children: A systematic review

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Analysis of cardiac autonomic modulation of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Learning strategies evaluation in students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

This study aim to verify the use of learning strategies in students of the elementary level presenting interdisciplinary diagnosis of attention dei cit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Nine students, male gender, attending 3rd to 9th grade level of the elementary level, average age 10 years and 7 months, presenting interdisciplinary diagnosis of attention dei cit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). h e students were submitted to the application of the Evaluation of Learning Strategies from elementary level – EAVAP-EF – scale, which aimed to evaluate the strategies reported and used by students in situation of study and learning, as follows: cognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies and absence of dysfunctional metacognitive strategies. h e general result at EAVAP-EF scale, showed that students with ADHD reached the percentile 25%, considered as low performance in the use of the learning strategies. For the variable absence of dysfunctional metacognitive strategies, the students presented percentile 30%, percentile 25% for cognitive strategies and 55% for metacognitive strategies. h e results showed that ADHD students do not use ef ectively the learning cognitive and metacognitive strategies and present the use of dysfunctional metacognitive strategies. h ese alterations match with the framework of ADHD because the entry of information, either visual or auditory, showed alterations, derived from inattention, which af ected the learning in classroom situation.

Comparison of child self-reports and parent proxy-reports on quality of life of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Abstract Background Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurobiological condition that affects 3%–7% of the pediatric population and significantly compromises the quality of life (QoL) of these individuals. The aim of the current study was to compare child self-reports and parent proxy reports on the QoL of children with ADHD. Methods Forty-five children with ADHD, combined type, aged 8–12 years without comorbidities, were compared with 43 typically developing children. PedsQL™ 4.0 (Pediatric QoL Inventory™) Generic Core Scales (physical, emotional, social, and school functioning) were completed by families and children self-reporting their health-related QoL. Results Children with ADHD reported themselves significantly lowered their PedsQL™ scores on all dimensions in comparison to typically developing children. Statistically significant differences were observed in social functioning (p = 0.010), school functioning (p <0.001), psychosocial health (p <0.001), and total score (p = 0.002). The physical functioning and emotional functioning dimensions did not differ significantly between groups, with p = 0.841 and p = 0.070, respectively. Parents of children with ADHD also reported lower PedsQL™ scores, with statistically significant differences in all dimensions. The relationship between child self-reports and parent proxy reports indicated that there is greater agreement among children with ADHD, except for the school functioning. Conclusions This suggests that children with the disorder and their parents have a perception of the functional limitations the disorder brings. It is therefore important to undertake studies to verify the QoL in children with ADHD that aim to provide and measure the scope of the well-being of these children.

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and glial integrity: an exploration of associations of cytokines and kynurenine metabolites with symptoms and attention

In contrast to studies of depression and psychosis, the first part of this study showed no major differences in serum levels of cytokines and tryptophan metabolites between healthy children and those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder of the combined type (ADHD). Yet, small decreases of potentially toxic kynurenine metabolites and increases of cytokines were evident in subgroups. Therefore we examined predictions of biochemical associations with the major symptom clusters, measures of attention and response variability.

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and glial integrity: S100B, cytokines and kynurenine metabolism--effects of medication

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show a marked temporal variability in their display of symptoms and neuropsychological performance. This could be explained in terms of an impaired glial supply of energy to support neuronal activity.