Neuropsychological profile of adults with attention deficits: differences between ADHD and clinical controls

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Discriminating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) from non-ADHD individuals referred to evaluate attention deficits is a challenge that is often faced by clinicians, which might be aggravated by the design of the majority of studies that compare ADHD to normal control comparison individuals, instead of comparing to control clinical individuals. OBJECTIVE: To compare neuropsychological performance of DSM-IV ADHD adults and clinical control individuals with attention complaints referred for neuropsychological evaluation. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis through the database of a private clinic specialized in neuropsychological evaluation along a two year period. ADHD adults (n = 56; 64.28% male) were compared to control individuals from the same sample referred due to inattention (n = 29; 58.62% male), with an age range from 18 to 59 years old. Measures of attention, executive functions and memory were used. RESULTS: Groups were paired by age, schooling level, gender distribution and IQ (p >; 0.05). We found no differences regarding performances in attention tasks; however, ADHD individuals showed worse performances in tasks that demand verbal working memory. DISCUSSION: When comparing ADHD adults and control individuals with complaints of attention deficits, the first group presented worse performance only in verbal working memory tasks.