TITLE:
Executive function impairments in high IQ children and adolescents with ADHD
AUTHORS:
Thomas Edwards Brown, Philipp Christian Reichel, Donald Michael Quinlan
KEYWORDS:
ADHD; Executive Functions; High IQ; Working Memory; Processing Speed
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Psychiatry,
Vol.1 No.2,
July
12,
2011
ABSTRACT: Objective: To demonstrate that high IQ children and adolescents diagnosed with ADHD tend to suffer from executive function (EF) impairments that: a) can be identified with a combination of standardized measures and normed self-report data; and b) occur more frequently in this group than in the general population. Method: From charts of 117 children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 years with high IQ ( ≥ 120) who fully met DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for ADHD, data on 8 normed measures of executive function (EF) were extracted: IQ index scores for working memory and processing speed, a standardized measure of auditory verbal memory, and 5 clusters of the Brown ADD Scale, a normed, age-graded rating scale for ADHD-related executive function impairments in daily life. Significant impairment was computed for each individual relative to age-appropriate norms for each measure and comparisons were made to base-line rates in the general population. Results: Sixty-two percent of participants were significantly impaired on at least 5 of these 8 markers of EF. Chi-square comparisons of scores from these high IQ participants were significantly different (p