Preschool Predictors of ADHD Symptoms and Impairment During Childhood and Adolescence

Abstract

Symptom trajectories show that hyperactivity/impulsivity declines across childhood. At the group level, the course of inattention appears more variable. However, identification of subgroups of children showing stable, rising, and falling inattention over time is promising. Early ADHD-like symptoms portend risk for academic and social difficulties, as well as comorbid emotional and behavioral problems in childhood and adolescence. Several early risk factors appear to moderate these relations, including comorbid symptoms, parental psychopathology, socioeconomic disadvantage, and perhaps neuropsychological dysfunction. Furthermore, high levels of inattention and/or hyperactivity/impulsivity during the preschool period appear to compromise development of regulatory and neuropsychological functions, which in turn increases risk for negative outcomes later in childhood. Identified risk factors are targets for novel interventions, which ideally would be delivered early to at-risk children.

Neural generators involved in visual cue processing in children with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

“…Notably, homotypic continuity has been found in childhood depression throughout adolescence (Gaffrey et al, 2018). Stable trajectories of ADHD during this critical period have also been described by O'Neill et al (O'Neill et al, 2017). In addition, age-related effects primarily impact the strength of the connection instead of their organization (Faghiri et al, 2018), and neural networks involved in sensorimotor and visual processing remain stable from 9 to 25 years of age (Brookes et al, 2018).…”

A biologically-informed polygenic score identifies endophenotypes and clinical conditions associated with the insulin receptor function on specific brain regions

“…Evidence suggests a developmental trajectory for the establishment of these co-morbidities over the life-course [[18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24]]. For instance, variations in early growth trajectories during development – essentially an insulin-dependent process [25] – are associated with differences in childhood impulsivity [26].…”

Early Crying, Sleeping, and Feeding Problems and Trajectories of Attention Problems From Childhood to Adulthood

“…Several longitudinal studies have prospectively investigated the development of childhood attention problems and assessed mean symptom levels or proportions of ADHD diagnoses at various time points (Biederman et al, 2000;Hart, Lahey, Loeber, Applegate, & Frick, 1995;Larsson et al, 2006;O'Neill, Rajendran, Mahbubani, & Halperin, 2017;Rietveld, Hudziak, Bartels, van Beijsterveldt, & Boomsma, 2004). The problem with this approach is that not all individuals may follow the same pattern of development over time.…”