Autonomic arousal profiles in adolescents and young adults with ADHD as a function of recording context.

Psychiatry Res

King's College London, Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, 16 De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London, SE5 8AF, United Kingdom. Electronic address:

Published: May 2019

A recent study (James et al. 2016) found that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was associated with hypo-arousal, indexed by low electrodermal activity, during a low-demand reaction-time task, which normalized in a fast-incentive condition. We now investigate if (1) autonomic arousal in individuals with ADHD changes over a long testing session and (2) across time, to clarify if arousal profiles are context-dependent. We also examine (3) how autonomic arousal relates to each ADHD symptom domain, and specificity of arousal profiles to ADHD, by controlling for oppositional defiant/conduct disorder (ODD/CD) symptoms. Skin conductance level and non-specific fluctuations were measured during four successive resting-state and cognitive conditions (Resting-state time 1, Continuous Performance Task, Fast Task: Baseline and Fast-Incentive conditions, Resting-state time 2) from 71 adolescents/young adults with ADHD and 140 controls. Lower arousal was observed in individuals with ADHD only during a slow, low-demanding task, and more fluctuating arousal was observed towards the end of assessment. Both inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive symptoms were associated with arousal levels and fluctuations, independently from ODD/CD. Overall, we extend previous findings showing that under-arousal, but also fluctuating arousal, are context-specific rather than stable impairments in ADHD.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6525183PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2019.03.039DOI Listing

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