Differential diagnosis of ADHD: Are objective measures of attention, impulsivity, and activity level helpful?

Abstract

The diagnostic utility of objective measures of inattention, impulsivity, and activity level was assessed by examining the classification of ADHD and non-ADHD patients, as well as normal children. Discriminant function analyses correctly classified 72.4% of subjects in the ADHD versus normal control comparison, and 66.2% in the ADHD versus non-ADHD comparison. Poor performance on objective measures was generally indicative of ADHD relative to normal controls, but “average” performance could not be used to rule out ADHD. Diagnostic classification indices were much lower in the ADHD versus non-ADHD patient discrimination. CPT-inattention scores had moderate sensitivity, but low specificity; CPT-impulsivity and actigraph scores had low sensitivity but high specificity. These findings are discussed in terms of the utility of these objective measures for assessing ADHD in clinical and nonclinical populations.