Does comorbid depression impact executive functioning (EF) in adults diagnosed with ADHD?: a comparison of EF across diagnoses in clinically-referred individuals

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Executive functioning (EF) is a salient factor in both ADHD as well as depressive disorders. However, sparse literature has examined whether depression severity impacts EF concurrently among adults with ADHD. The goal of this study was to examine differences in EF between adult patients diagnosed with ADHD and those diagnosed with a non-ADHD primary psychopathological condition, as a function of both ADHD presentation and depression severity in a diverse clinical sample.

Method

This crosssectional study included 404 adult patients clinically referred for neuropsychological evaluation to assist with differential diagnosis and/or treatment planning related to known or suspected ADHD. Various EF tasks and a measure of depression severity were administered. One-way MANOVA analyses were conducted to compare EF performance between individuals diagnosed with ADHD or a non-ADHD primary psychopathological condition, with additional analyses examining group differences based on ADHD presentation and depression severity. Regression analyses also examined the potential contribution of depression severity to each EF measure within each group.

Results

No significant EF performance differences were found when comparing individuals diagnosed with ADHD and those with a non-ADHD primary psychopathological condition, nor based on ADHD presentation. When comparing across groups using cut-offs for high or low depression, only one EF measure showed significant differences between groups. Further, depression severity generally did not predict reduced EF performances with the exception of verbal fluency and working memory performances in select groups.

Conclusions

This study demonstrated that individuals with ADHD generally perform comparably on EF measures regardless of the presence or absence of comorbid depression. These results suggest further examination of EF deficits when they emerge for adults with ADHD, especially beyond comorbid depression severity.

KEYWORDS:

• Executive function
• ADHD
• depression
• comorbidity
• neuropsychology

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. Three examinees in the ADHD-all/ADHD-C group were missing data from the BDI-II score or Stroop CW-T and were excluded from correlation and regression analyses.

2. One examinee in the ADHD-all/ADHD-C group was missing data on the Stroop CW-T and excluded from MANOVA analyses.

Additional information

Funding

The study has been conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the American Psychological Association and was approved by the University of Illinois Chicago Institutional Review Board (STUDY2003-0020). All participants provided informed consent prior to participation.