Search

Abstract Background Eleven previous reports have shown potential benefit of a 36-ingredient micronutrient formula (known as EMPowerplus) for the treatment of psychiatric symptoms. The current study asked whether children (7-18 years) with pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD) benefited from this same micronutrient formula; the impact of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) on their response was also evaluated. Methods Data were available from an existing database for 120 children whose parents reported a diagnosis of PBD; 79% were taking psychiatric medications that are used to treat mood disorders; 24% were also reported as ADHD. Using Last Observation Carried Forward (LOCF), data were analyzed from 3 to 6 months of micronutrient use. Results At LOCF, mean symptom severity of bipolar symptoms was 46% lower than baseline (effect size (ES) = 0.78) (p < 0.001). In terms of responder status, 46% experienced >50% improvement at LOCF, with 38% still taking psychiatric medication (52% drop from baseline) but at much lower levels (74% reduction in number of medications being used from baseline). The results were similar for those with both ADHD and PBD: a 43% decline in PBD symptoms (ES = 0.72) and 40% in ADHD symptoms (ES = 0.62). An alternative sample of children with just ADHD symptoms (n = 41) showed a 47% reduction in symptoms from baseline to LOCF (ES = 1.04). The duration of reductions in symptom severity suggests that benefits were not attributable to placebo/expectancy effects. Similar findings were found for younger and older children and for both sexes. Conclusions The data are limited by the open label nature of the study, the lack of a control group, and the inherent self-selection bias. While these data cannot establish efficacy, the results are consistent with a growing body of research suggesting that micronutrients appear to have therapeutic benefit for children with PBD with or without ADHD in the absence of significant side effects and may allow for a reduction in psychiatric medications while improving symptoms. The consistent reporting of positive changes across multiple sites and countries are substantial enough to warrant a call for randomized clinical trials using micronutrients.

Objective: To explore risk behaviors in adults with ADHD, testing the possible mediating role of reward sensitivity and temporal discounting. Method: 66 adults (43 men, 23 women; 18-65 years) completed clinical interviews and self-report measures of ADHD symptoms, risk-taking behaviours/risky experiences and experimental measures of temporal discounting and reward sensitivity. Results: ADHD symptom severity in adults was significantly associated with self-reported life-time histories of risk-taking behaviours, including alcohol abuse, nicotine abuse, illicit drug abuse, and perpetration of violence; as well as experience of risky sexual situations and violence victimisation (all p values Keywords: ADHD; risk-taking; violence; motivation; reward, temporal discounting, Introduction Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a developmental disorder that often persists into adulthood (Biederman et al, 2006), and is associated with a range of neurobehavioural difficulties including response inhibition and [...]

Sixty youth (16-19 years) from two youth prison sites participate in a prospective study examining criminal offending and learning disabilities (LD), completing measures of estimated IQ, attention, reading, and mathematical and oral language abilities. Prevalence rates of LDs exceed those of international studies, with 91.67% of the offenders showing significant difficulties in at least one area of achievement (defined as 1 SD or more below the normative mean), the mean reading comprehension score falling at the 4th percentile. Four years post assessment, recidivism rates among released youth (n = 51) are investigated. After the investigators control for other known risk factors (including delinquency and estimated IQ), reading comprehension predicts future offending across measures, capturing rate, seriousness, and persistence of offending post release.

Psychiatrists and other mental health professionals are often asked about the role that diet and nutrition play in ADHD etiology and symptom management. This article examines the contributory role of [...]

Selective attention has durable consequences for behavior and neural activation. Negative priming (NP) effects are assumed to reflect a critical inhibitory component of selective attention. The performance of adolescents with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) was assessed across two conceptually based NP tasks within a selective attention procedure. Comorbidity (non-comorbid ADHD vs. comorbid ADHD) and subtype (ADHD combined vs. ADHD inattentive) were considered key issues. Results found NP effects to differ as a function of comorbidity but not subtype. Findings are discussed in light of functional neuroimaging evidence for neuronal enhancement for unattended stimuli relative to attended stimuli that strongly complements an inhibitory-based explanation for NP. Implications for the "AD" in ADHD and contemporary process models of the disorder are considered. (Contains 2 figures and 4 tables.)

Several hypotheses related to Newman's (e.g., Patterson & Newman, 1993) response modulation hypothesis were examined among adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; n = 18) and normal controls (n = 23). Consistent with predictions, youth with ADHD committed more passive avoidance errors (PAEs) than controls during the latter trials of a computerized go/no go task with mixed incentives, and this effect remained significant or marginally significant even after common variance associated with variables that covary with ADHD (i.e., IQ, oppositional-defiant/conduct disorder [ODD/CD] symptoms, anxious/depressed mood) was removed. While a moderate inverse association was observed between PAE frequency and the amount of time spent viewing response feedback following punishment, both categorical (diagnostic) and dimensional analyses of ADHD symptomatology indicated that ADHD and reflection on punishment feedback are uniquely associated with PAE commission. Findings from this study are discussed in relation to models of disinhibition applicable to youth with ADHD.

Only recently have studies included a female Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) sample when investigating neurocognitive functioning of individuals with ADHD. As such, the generalisability of findings of impaired executive functioning is limited to ADHD males. This study compared four groups aged 13-17 years: 30 male controls, 35 female controls, 24 males with ADHD, and 25 females with ADHD. Participants were assessed using the K-SADS-PL and Conners' Rating Scales, and completed tests of rapid naming, processing speed, memory, inhibition, set-shifting, and interference. Results showed that the males with ADHD and the females with ADHD performed similarly with only one notable difference: males with ADHD showed some evidence of more impaired inhibition than females with ADHD. In contrast, after controlling for reading ability, comorbidity, and IQ, both males and females with ADHD showed some impairment in working memory, naming speeds, processing abilities, and inhibitory deficits as compared with controls. This study supports the growing literature documenting impaired neurocognitive functioning in both males and females with ADHD.

Objective: Although studies have documented higher prevalence of abuse in children with ADHD, no studies have investigated childhood reports of abuse in individuals identified with ADHD in adulthood. Method: Forty ADHD women, 17 ADHD males, 17 female controls, and 40 male controls complete the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and other measures of psychosocial functioning. Results: Emotional abuse and neglect are more common among men and women with ADHD as compared to controls. Sexual abuse and physical neglect are more commonly reported by females with ADHD. Although childhood abuse is significantly correlated with depression and anxiety in adulthood, having ADHD is a better predictor of poorer psychosocial functioning in adulthood. Conclusion: Clinicians are alerted that patients with ADHD symptoms have a high probability of childhood abuse. (Contains 2 tables.)

This study investigated the potential accident-proneness of adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a hazardous road-crossing environment. An immersive virtual reality traffic gap-choice task was used to determine whether ADHD adolescents show more unsafe road-crossing behavior than controls. Participants (ages 13 to 17) were identified with (n = 24) or without (n = 24) ADHD according to a standardized protocol (Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime Version and Conners' Scales), with equal number of boys (n = 12) and girls (n = 12) in each group. ADHD adolescents did not take stimulant medication on the day of testing. Participants with ADHD had a lower margin of safety, walked slower, underutilized the available gap in incoming traffic, showed greater variability in road-crossing behavior, and evidenced twice as many collisions as compared to controls. No sex differences were found. Virtual reality may help identify and educate those at higher risk of being involved in dangerous traffic situations.

This study examined the relationship among creativity, ADHD symptomatology, temperament, and psychosocial functioning by comparing four groups of children aged 10-12 years: (1) 29 ADHD children without creativity, (2) 16 highly creative children displaying ADHD symptomatology, (3) 18 highly creative children without ADHD symptomatology, and (4) 30 normal controls. Children completed the TTCT, Child Depression Inventory, Revised Child Manifest Anxiety Scale, and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Parents completed the Junior Temperament and Character Inventory, Family Environment Scale, and the parent version of the Kastan Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire. Parents completed the Conner's Rating Scales and Child Behavior Checklist, and teachers completed the Child Behaviour Checklist. Results showed that the presence of ADHD symptomatology in creative children was related to their temperamental characteristics, and parent reports of children's levels of anxiety and depression. However, family environment and mother's attributions did not appear to be related to the presence of ADHD symptomatology in creative children. These findings have implications for the development and management of creative children. (Contains 5 tables.)

The purpose of this study is to explore whether ADHD is associated with high creative ability. Sixty-seven children, ages 10 to 12 (33 ADHD and 34 controls) completed the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), Maier's Two-String Problem, and the Block Design and Vocabulary subsets of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III). The results show that there is no significant difference between the ADHD group's and control group's performance on either the TTCT, Maier's Two-String Problem, or WISC-III, suggesting that children diagnosed with ADHD are no more creative than children without the diagnosis. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)

The September, 2010, 7.1 magnitude earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, provided an opportunity to study the after-effects of a major earthquake where death and injury were absent. It created a natural experiment into the protective effects on well-being of taking EMPowerplus (EMP+), a micronutrient supplement, in a group of 33 adults diagnosed with ADHD who had been assessed prior to the earthquake. Fortuitously, 16 were currently taking the supplement as part of on-going research at the time of the quake, while 17 were not (they had completed their trial of EMP+ or were waiting to begin consumption). The Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-42) which had been administered at varying times before the earthquake on recruitment into the micronutrient study was re-administered by telephone 7-10 and again 14-18 days post-earthquake to volunteer, earthquake-exposed participants. A modified Brinley plot analysis of the individual DASS-42 scores showed that the 16 participants on the nutritional supplement were more resilient to the effects of the earthquake than the 17 individuals not taking the supplement. This effect was particularly marked for Depression scores., On 4th September, 2010, at 4.35am local time, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck the Canterbury region of New Zealand (Quigley et al., 2010), with its epicentre about 40 kms from [...]

The relationship between reading difficulties (RD) and psychosocial problems is well-documented; however, less is known about possible protective factors. This study explored the possible protective functions of two socio-cognitive abilities (theory of mind and emotion understanding) in children with RD. Participants were 21 children with RD, and a matched group of 21 typicallyachieving peers aged 9-11 years. Psychosocial problems were assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Faux Pas Stories and the Diagnostic Assessment of Nonverbal Accuracy provided measures of theory of mind and emotion understanding respectively. Confirming previous findings, RD were significantly correlated with higher levels of psychosocial problems. Moreover, lower theory of mind scores predicted higher levels of psychosocial problems. Consistent with our hypothesis, emotion understanding moderated the link between RD and psychosocial problems. These findings provide evidence of the possible protective functions of socio-cognitive abilities for children with RD, and highlight the need for further investigation., Reading difficulties (RD) are 'characterised by an unexpected difficulty in reading in children and adults who otherwise possess the intelligence, motivation, and education necessary for developing accurate and fluent reading' [...]