Adult depression, undoubtedly associated with executive dysfunction, leads to poor work performance. As depression in adolescents may have a negative impact on school performance, we aimed to analyse the possible relationship between selected executive deficits and academic performance. Executive dysfunctions may have more severe consequences on school performance at high school, as this stage of education requires engagement in long-term goals, whether writing an essay or preparing for an exam. Whilst inhibitory control is necessary at all educational stages, it seems that planning and decision-making play a greater role in high school than in primary school. We reviewed studies on executive functions conducted in adolescents diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) to establish the possible relationship between executive processes and school performance in depressed adolescents. The search identified 5 studies addressing planning and decision-making in adolescents with MDD, but none of those studies reported educational achievement. We identified a considerable gap in the research on the functional impact of depression in adolescents. Identifying the link between specific executive deficits and school performance could guide tailored therapeutic interventions.
The paper aims at reviewing data on the executive functioning in children and adolescents with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) in the context of Suchy’s model of executive functioning. Suchy hypothesized that individuals with FASD would present with features of dysexecutive, disinhibited, apathetic and inappropriate, but not disorganized, syndromes. Eight papers satisfied the inclusion criteria for the review. In most respects, the performance of children with FASD was found to be lower than in the control group. According to Suchy’s model of executive functioning, children with FASD demonstrate features of dysexecutive syndrome (with deficits of executive cognitive functions) and of apathetic (deficit in initiation and maintenance) and disinhibited syndromes (deficit in response selection) as well as impaired social cognition that could correspond to socially inappropriate syndromes. None of the reviewed studies included measures of multi-tasking that would address features of disorganized syndrome. The results suggest a mixed pattern of executive deficits in FASD. Difficulties in delineating the executive functioning profile in children and adolescents with FASD may be related to heterogeneous patient populations (different clinical criteria, variable overall intellectual functioning and different living conditions) and also the complex nature of most of the executive measures that rarely tap one aspect of the executive functioning and typically engage a variety of cognitive processes.
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