Sex Differences in Young Children Who Meet Criteria for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Hartung, Cynthia M.; Willcutt, Erik G.; Lahey, Benjamin B.; Pelham, William E.; Loney, Jan; Stein, Mark A.; Keenan, Kate

doi:10.1207/s15374424jccp3104_5

Cited by 61 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 42 publications

(44 reference statements)

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“…13,[40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47] Similar to what is observed in older youth with ADHD, preschool-ers with ADHD have poorer social skills, more difficulties with their peers, greater academic difficulties, and poorer cognitive and neuropsychological functioning. Moreover, their parents often have greater levels of psychopathology and stress, negative parenting behavior, feel less competent in their role as parent, and have poorer coping styles.…”

Section: Validitymentioning

confidence: 62%

Viewing Preschool Disruptive Behavior Disorders and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Through a Developmental Lens: What We Know and What We Need to Know

Chacko

Wakschlag

Hill

et al. 2009

Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America

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Section: Validitymentioning

confidence: 62%

Viewing Preschool Disruptive Behavior Disorders and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Through a Developmental Lens: What We Know and What We Need to Know

Chacko

Wakschlag

Hill

et al. 2009

Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America

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“…Animal studies have shown that estrogen significantly increases striatal dopamine synthesis, baseline dopamine release, and d-amphetamine-induced dopamine release (Di Paolo, 1994), and studies suggest that these sex-related differences in dopamine function may explain sex differences in cognition and behavior (Gurvich and Rossell, 2015;Riccardi et al, 2006). Because neuropsychiatric disorders that feature decision-making deficits are associated with dysregulated dopamine function (Frank et al, 2007;Rahman et al, 2001) and show sex differences in the incidence, prevalence, and treatment outcome (Hartung et al, 2002), it is important to investigate how sex mediates the relationships between markers for striatal dopamine activity and brain function in future studies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional Genetic Variation in Dopamine Signaling Moderates Prefrontal Cortical Activity During Risky Decision Making

Kohno

Nurmi

Laughlin

et al. 2015

Neuropsychopharmacol

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Brain imaging has revealed links between prefrontal activity during risky decision-making and striatal dopamine receptors. Specifically, striatal dopamine D2-like receptor availability is correlated with risk-taking behavior and sensitivity of prefrontal activation to risk in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). The extent to which these associations, involving a single neurochemical measure, reflect more general effects of dopaminergic functioning on risky decision making, however, is unknown. Here, 65 healthy participants provided genotypes and performed the BART during functional magnetic resonance imaging. For each participant, dopamine function was assessed using a gene composite score combining known functional variation across five genes involved in dopaminergic signaling: DRD2, DRD3, DRD4, DAT1, and COMT. The gene composite score was negatively related to dorsolateral prefrontal cortical function during risky decision making, and nonlinearly related to earnings on the task. Iterative permutations of all possible allelic variations (7777 allelic combinations) was tested on brain function in an independently defined region of the prefrontal cortex and confirmed empirical validity of the composite score, which yielded stronger association than 95% of all other possible combinations. The gene composite score also accounted for a greater proportion of variability in neural and behavioral measures than the independent effects of each gene variant, indicating that the combined effects of functional dopamine pathway genes can provide a robust assessment, presumably reflecting the cumulative and potentially interactive effects on brain function. Our findings support the view that the links between dopaminergic signaling, prefrontal function, and decision making vary as a function of dopamine signaling capacity.

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“…with the disorder, particularly in school (Gaub & Carlson, 1997;Gershon, 2002;Hartung et al, 2002), girls with ADHD may have worse cognitive impairment than boys with the disorder (Biederman et al, 1999;Gaub & Carlson, 1997;Newcorn et al, 2001). The precise neurobiological mechanisms underlying sex differences in the prevalence rates of developmental learning and behavioral disorders are complex and underresearched.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Masculinized finger-length ratios of boys, but not girls, are associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Martel

Gobrogge

Breedlove

et al. 2008

Behavioral Neuroscience

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Gonadal hormones may exert permanent organizational effects on sexually dimorphic finger-length ratios and sexually dimorphic behavior expressed in childhood attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study extended recent work examining associations between finger-length ratios (specifically, 2D:4D) and ADHD in a well-characterized, clinically diagnosed, communityrecruited sample of boys and girls. A multistage, diagnostic procedure was utilized to identify 113 children with ADHD and 137 non-ADHD comparison children. Right-hand digit ratios showed significant mean differences by gender, as well as associations with ADHD diagnosis. Boys with ADHD had more masculinized digit ratios than control-group boys. More masculine right 2D:4D and 3D:4D ratios were correlated with parent-and teacher-rated inattentive and hyperactiveimpulsive symptoms in boys but not in girls. Masculinized finger-length ratios were associated with hyperactive-impulsive and oppositional-defiant symptoms, but associations were largest with symptoms of inattention. It is concluded that prenatal, organizational effects of gonadal hormones may play a role in the development of ADHD and contribute to explaining sex differences in the prevalence rates of this childhood disorder. Keywordstestosterone; finger-length ratio; 2D:4D; ADHD; sex differences Males are more vulnerable than females to developing a range of learning and behavioral disorders during childhood. Attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common and impairing sexually dimorphic clinical psychopathologies, with boys about three times more likely to be identified with ADHD than girls in population samples (American Psychiatric Association, 2000;Pastor & Reuben, 2002;Wolraich, Hannah, Baumgaertel, & Feurer, 1998). In addition, there may be sex differences in the correlates of the disorder. Although boys with ADHD appear to be more inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive than girls with the disorder, particularly in school (Gaub & Carlson, 1997;Gershon, 2002;Hartung et al., 2002), girls with ADHD may have worse cognitive impairment than boys with the disorder (Biederman et al., 1999;Gaub & Carlson, 1997;Newcorn et al., 2001). The precise neurobiological mechanisms underlying sex differences in the prevalence rates of developmental learning and behavioral disorders are complex and underresearched.The male sex bias in ADHD and its precursor behaviors is apparent during early preschool years (Hart, Lahey, Loeber, Applegate, & Frick, 1995), a period marked by rapid neural organization (Breedlove & Hampson, 2002). Males are typically exposed to testosterone perinatally, whereas females develop in the relative absence of testosterone (Morris, Jordan, & Breedlove, 2004). This differential exposure to steroid hormones produces specific malelike and/or female-like brain-behavior patterns . Therefore, these prenatal events may be related to sex differences in prevalence rates of ADHD. However, research on hormonal effects in ADHD is sparse, despite conse...

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Sex Differences in Young Children Who Meet Criteria for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Cited by 61 publications

References 42 publications

Viewing Preschool Disruptive Behavior Disorders and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Through a Developmental Lens: What We Know and What We Need to Know

Viewing Preschool Disruptive Behavior Disorders and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Through a Developmental Lens: What We Know and What We Need to Know

Functional Genetic Variation in Dopamine Signaling Moderates Prefrontal Cortical Activity During Risky Decision Making

Masculinized finger-length ratios of boys, but not girls, are associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

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