DrCameronJackson@gmail.com
About half of all children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) also have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or some symptoms of ADHD either inattentive, hyperactive or combined.
Common symptoms of the inattention form of ADHD are: the person often has difficulty organizing tasks and activities; is often forgetful in daily activities; dislikes tasks that require sustained mental effort such as homework; often loses thing necessary for tasks or activities; easily distracted by extraneous stimuli; does not seem to listen when spoken to directly; has difficulty sustaining attention in tasks; and makes careless mistakes.
Children and adults who have some ADHD symptoms and Autistic Spectrum Disorder tend to have exacerbated impairment in adaptive behavior, working memory and general executive functioning . How do we know this?
The above findings are from research published in Acta Neurpsychiatrica, August 2008, vol. 20, issue 4, pgs 207-215.
“Recent estimates suggest that 31% of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) meet diagnostic criteria for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and another 24% of children with ASD exhibit sub threshold clinical ADHD symptoms.
“Presence of ADHD symptoms in the context of ASD could have a variety of effects on cognition, autistic traits, and adaptive/maladaptive behaviors including: exacerbating core ASD impairments; adding unique impairments specific to ADHD; producing new problems unreported in ASD or ADHD; having no clear impact; or producing some combination of these scenarios. Children with ASD and co-morbid ADHD symptoms (ASD+ADHD; n=21), children with ASD without ADHD (ASD; n=28), and a typically developing control group (n=21) were included in the study; all groups were matched on age, gender-ratio, IQ, and socioeconomic status. Data were collected on verbal and spatial working memory, response inhibition, global executive control (EC), autistic traits, adaptive functioning, and maladaptive behavior problems.
In this sample, the presence of ADHD symptoms in ASD exacerbated impairments in EC and adaptive behavior and resulted in higher autistic trait, and externalizing behavior ratings. ADHD symptoms were also associated with greater impairments on a lab measure of verbal working memory.
These findings suggest that children with ASD+ADHD symptoms present with exacerbated impairments in some but not all domains of functioning relative to children with ASD, most notably in
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adaptive behavior and working memory.
Therefore, ADHD may moderate the expression of components of the ASD cognitive and behavioral phenotype, but ASD+ADHD may not represent an etiologically distinct phenotype from ASD alone.”
