Neuropsychological performance of a sample of adults with ADHD, developmental reading disorder, and controls

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the performance of adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), relative to adults with Developmental Reading Disorder (DRD), and controls on a battery of executive function tasks (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test [WCST], Test of Variables of Attention, Tower of Hanoi, and Ravens Progressive Matrices) and several self‐report ADHD rating scales (Wender Utah Rating Scale, Patient Behavior Checklist, and the Adult Rating Scale). Sixty‐four participants took part in the study (21 with ADHD, 19 with DRD, and 24 controls). Kruskall‐Wallis one‐way analysis of variance results revealed a significant difference between groups, with the DRD group committing more WCST errors (total and perseveration) than the remaining groups. Group differences were also found on the ADHD ratings scales, with the ADHD group reporting higher ratings. Discriminant Function Analyses (using the rating scales and the neuropsychological tasks) correctly classified 67% and 44% of the cases, respectively. The psychometric properties of the ADHD rating scales were also explored.