A Preliminary Study for Continuous Performance Test by Subtypes of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to compare two subtypes of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and controls in their attention using ADHD diagnostic system(ADS), a kind of continuous performance test. METHODS: Subjects of this study were 8 children with ADHD-predominantly inattentive type, 28 children with ADHDcombined type and 20 control children. Ages ranged from 5 to 14 years. The Korean Educational Development Institute version of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children(KEDI-WISC) and the ADS were administered to all subjects to provide measures of intelligence and attention. RESULTS: Significant differences were found in the ADS variables for the three groups. When compared with controls, the ADHD-predominantly inattentive type children scored significantly higher on the omission error at middle stage and later stage and ADHD-combined type children scored significantly higher on the omission error and reaction time at later stage. When compared with the other two groups, the ADHD-combined type children scored significantly higher on the commission error at all three stages. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that the two subtypes of ADHD have different features in attention deficit. And there was a possibility that commission error is available variable to show cognitive characteristics of ADHD-combined type than any other ADS variables. Further studies are needed to evaluate this finding.