The goal of the current study was to investigate whether two cognitive functions (i.e., sustained attention and response inhibition) were related to a general model of personality traits and behavioral characteristics associated with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). To examine these relations, the Conjunctive Continuous Performance Test was used to measure the two cognitive functions, the Mini-Marker was used to measure the Big Five domains of personality, and the Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS) was used to index ADHD symptoms. Correlations and multiple regression analyses showed that difficulties in sustained attention were associated with the WURS behavioral symptoms of inattention, oppositional/defiant behavior, impulsivity, and Big Five low conscientiousness, but were not associated with emotional problems such as neuroticism or low agreeableness (Big Five). Difficulties in response inhibition were marginally correlated with behavioral symptoms of inattention and low conscientiousness. Surprisingly, response inhibition was also highly correlated with sustained attention. In addition, neuroticism independently was highly associated with the WURS emotional and oppositional/defiant behavior symptoms. The findings suggest that deficient sustained attention relates specifically to the main ADHD behaviors but not to the emotional problems typically associated with the disorder.
Objective: Stimulant medications are considered an effective treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and their prescription is consistently on the rise. However, research showed a limited adherence to ADHD medication regimens. This study explores the experiences of using stimulant medication from the understudied perspective of adolescents. Method: Fourteen semistructured interviews were conducted with adolescents diagnosed as having ADHD, and the data was analyzed according to the principles of qualitative interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results: Participants were passive actors in the diagnostic process. Following the medical treatment, half of the interviewees described improvement in their concentration while studying and during exams. However, most of the interviewees discussed the difficulties of taking medication especially in terms of emotional side effects, identity loss, and interpersonal relationships. Those who reached high school stopped, fully or selectively, taking the medication on their own initiative. Conclusion: The results of this study points to the importance of considering the burden of treatment for children and adolescents who take stimulant medications.
The authors have recently shown that attenuation of an external response feedback leads to excessive lever-pressing that is not associated with attempts to collect reward, and they have suggested that this may be an analogue to "unreasonable" excessive behavior characteristic of obsessive-compulsive disorder. The present study shows that repeated administration of SCH 23390 or quinpirole, but not SKF 38393 or haloperidol, enhances this behavioral pattern. On the basis of data regarding the enduring effects of chronic treatment with dopaminergic agents, these results suggest that overstimulation of striatal D1 receptors underlies enhanced response to signal attenuation. These results may link the hypothesis that obsessions and compulsions result from a deficient response feedback mechanism with findings implicating dopaminergic abnormalities in the production of obsessions and compulsions.
The study findings suggested that difficulties in selective attention are probably not associated with ADHD behaviors, but rather with personality traits characterized by preserving and avoiding high-stimulation behaviors.
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