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Attention profiles in autism spectrum disorder and subtypes of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

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Abstract

Attention problems are observed in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Most neuropsychological studies that compared both disorders focused on complex executive functions (EF), but missed to contrast basic attention functions, as well as ASD- and ADHD subtypes. The present study compared EF as well as basic attention functioning of children with the combined subtype (ADHD-C), the predominantly inattentive subtype (ADHD-I), and autism spectrum disorder without ADHD (ASD-) with typically developing controls (TD). Basic attention functions and EF profiles were analysed by testing the comprehensive attention function model of van Zomeren and Brouwer using profile analysis. Additionally, neurocognitive impairments in ASD- and ADHD were regressed on dimensional measures of attention- and hyperactive-impulsive symptoms across and within groups. ADHD-C revealed a strong impairment across measures of EF compared to ASD- and TD. The ADHD-C profile furthermore showed disorder specific impairments in interference control, whereas the ASD- profile showed a disorder specific impairment in basic attention component divided attention. Attention- and hyperactive-impulsive symptom severity did not predict neurocognitive impairments across- or within groups. Study findings thus support disorder and subtype specific attention/EF profiles, which refute the idea of a continuum of ADHD-I, ADHD-C, and ASD with increasing neurocognitive impairments.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully thank all children and their families for their participation in our study. Data collection was supported by grants of the German Research Foundation DFG to Christine M. Freitag and Jobst Meyer (Grants ME 1923/5-1, ME 1923/5-3), the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) Grant 01GV0605, and the BMBF/EC ERA-Net Grant 01EW1105 to Christine M. Freitag. Data analysis and writing was supported by the EU funded International Training Network MiND to CMF (Grant Number 82600321). CMF receives royalties for books on Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder. She has served as consultant to Desitin and Roche.

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  1. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Sara Boxhoorn, Eva Lopez, Catharina Schmidt, Diana Schulze & Christine M. Freitag

  2. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Saarland University Hospital, Homburg, Germany

    Susann Hänig

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Boxhoorn, S., Lopez, E., Schmidt, C. et al. Attention profiles in autism spectrum disorder and subtypes of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 27, 1433–1447 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-018-1138-8

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