The Characteristics of Executive Dysfunctions and Changes after Mehylphenidate Treatment in ADHD Children / 대한정신약물학회지

The characteristics and changes after methylphenidate treatment of executive functions were conducted. Forty elementary school children, over 85 in intelligence quotient, were selected as experimental group. They are diagnosed to have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). 40 normal control group were also selected. For comparing of executive functions, ADHD subjects were tested executive functions before and 4 weeks after methylphenidate. Normal control group were also tested. Several behavioral checklists were used, and Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Conners Continuous Performance Test, Stop Signal Task, Trail-Making Test (patr B), and Maze test were used. The executive functions and intelligence of ADHD were generally lower than normal control group. On CPT, ADHD showed significantly lower performances in commissions, hit reaction time standard errors, variability of standard errors, and attentiveness. On SST, ADHD presented significantly lower performance in probability of inhibit, stop signal reaction time, Z Score of relative finishing time, Mean delay time on each block, and primary standard deviation. On WCST, ADHD had meaningfully lower performance in total corrects, total errors, nonperseverative errors, completed category, and trials to 1st category completed. After medication, intelligence was not changed, but simultaneous processing ability was improved significantly. And the behavioral problems were improved, but still had differences comparing to control. Commission of Conners' CPT, all aspects of SST and total corrects of WCST were improved.

The Comparison of Intelligence Efficacy According to Methylphenidate Administration in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder(ADHD) Patients / 영남의대학술지

BACKGROUND: The causes of ADHD(attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) are various, it is impossible to understand the whole characteristics of ADHD, only with simple intellignece testing scales. We compared cognitive characteristics of ADHD group with normal controls with Korean Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children(K-ABC), It is well known to evaluate neuropsychological and cognitive aspects of the children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Age and sex matched 40 ADHD patients and 40 normal controls tested with the K-ABC. Each subscales compared between pre-treatment patients and controls, pre-treatment and post-treatment in patient group, post-treatment patients and controls. RESULTS: Significant differences are ovserved in sequential processing, simultaneous processing, cognitive processing and achievement between pre-treatment patients and controls, and in gestalt closure between pre-treatment and post-treatment patients group. But there are no significant differences between pre-treatment patients and controls in gestalt closure and reading/decoding. CONCLUSIONS: Methylphenidate improved the scores of simultaneous scale, which means improvement of executive functions such as divided attention, analysis and organization. Methylphenidate also reduced distractibility.