Is sustained attention deficit related to subclinical obsessive thoughts in children and adolescents with ADHD?

Abstract

Background: Thought content and its impact on sustained attention in individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are topics of growing interest in literature.

Objective: We hypothesised that subclinical obsessive thoughts may be correlated with attention lapses in individuals with ADHD.

Method: Thirty children diagnosed with ADHD participated in the study and their level of subclinical obsessive thoughts, attention, and executive function were measured using Children Yale-Brown Obsessive Scale and Conners’ Continuous Performance Test II.

Results: No significant correlation between sustained attention impairment and the level of obsessive thoughts in patients with ADHD was found. Nevertheless, patients with ADHD with subclinical obsessive thoughts showed more commission errors than those without (W = 51.5; p = 0.02).

Conclusion: The nature of thought content in individuals with ADHD should be linked to executive dysfunction rather than attentional impairment. This could be of importance in the therapeutic strategy choice, addressing the importance of executive function remediation in the specific context of subclinical obsessive thoughts.

Key points

•  Patients with ADHD, without OCD or ASD comorbidity, still present subclinical obsessive thoughts (36% of our sample).  • Subclinical obsessive thoughts could be a part of thought content in patients with ADHD.

•  • Subclinical obsessive thoughts as measured by the CPT-II are not correlated with attention function in patients with ADHD.

•  • ADHD patients with subclinical obsessive symptoms present more impairment in response inhibition than the ones without.

•  • Results on subclinical obsessive thoughts are similar to those on another type of thought content called ‘mind wandering’.

•  • A clinical improvement strategy for patients with ADHD could be using executive function remediation rather than classical attention function remediation, according to both to our and previous results.

Keywords:

• OCD
• ADHD
• child psychiatry
• neuropsychology
• mind wandering
• executive functions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).