Intervention for executive functions in attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate if an executive functions (EF) intervention could promote these skills in individuals with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Eighteen children and adolescents, 7-13 years old, divided into experimental (EG, N = 8) and control (CG, N = 10) groups, were assessed in the Block Design and Vocabulary subtests of the WISC III and seven tests of EF. Parents answered two scales, measuring EF and inattention and hyperactivity signs. EG children participated in a program to promote EF in twice-weekly group sessions of one hour each. After 8 months of intervention, groups were assessed again. ANCOVA, controlling for age, intelligence quotient and pretest performance, revealed gains in attention/inhibition and auditory working memory measures for the EG. No effect was found for scales or measures of more complex EF. Results are not conclusive, but they illustrate some promising data about EF interventions in children and adolescents with ADHD.Keywords: regulation, intervention, executive function, inattention. RESUMOEste estudo investigou se uma intervenção para funções executivas (FE) pode promover essas habilidades em indivíduos com transtorno do déficit de atenção e hiperatividade (TDAH). Participaram 18 crianças e adolescentes, 7-13 anos, divididos em Grupo Experimental (GE, N = 8) e Controle (GC, N = 10), avaliados nos subtestes Blocos e Vocabulário do WISC III e sete testes de FE. Pais responderam a duas escalas mensurando FE e sintomas de desatenção e hiperatividade. As crianças do GE participaram de um programa de promoção de FE, em sessões de grupo de uma hora cada, duas vezes por semana. Após intervenção de oito meses, os grupos foram reavaliados. ANCOVA, controlando idade, QI e desempenho no pré-teste, revelou ganhos da intervenção em medidas de atenção/inibição e memória de trabalho auditiva para o GE. Nenhum efeito foi encontrado para as escalas ou medidas de FE mais complexas. Os resultados não são conclusivos, mas ilustram tendências promissoras sobre intervenções em FE em crianças e adolescentes com TDAH.Palavras-chave: regulação, intervenção, função executiva, desatenção.Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a developmental disorder that tends to persist for many years or entire lives. It is characterized as a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity/impulsivity that is more frequent and severe than is typically observed in individuals at a comparable level of development 1 . Studies have sought to understand possible impairments associated with ADHD symptoms, which can be useful for the diagnosis of the disorder and for rehabilitation of deficit areas. In this sense, important neuropsychological processes have been implicated in ADHD, including executive functions (EF) 2 . EF are responsible for top-down control of cognition, behaviors, and emotions. Core EF include inhibition (the ability to control an automatic or prepotent response and to control one's attention and thoughts), flexibility (the capacity to change the foc...

Cognitive changes in nurses working in intensive care units

“…People with lower ages and higher education levels showed better performance in attentional tasks, which suggests the influence of these variables on the attention process. These data confirm what was obtained, but we cannot infer that education level influences the attentional tests (16) . The fact that stress is predominant in the resistance phase suggests that the cognitive processes investigated have undergone little variation in the proposed times.…”

“…Although the methodology and population of this study is different from the one used, the neuropsychological test applied to the adults in the control group showed that the attention, memory, visualmotor dexterity and cognitive flexibility tests were not altered in those with complaints of attention deficit (5,16) . People with lower ages and higher education levels showed better performance in attentional tasks, which suggests the influence of these variables on the attention process.…”

“…The fact that stress is predominant in the resistance phase suggests that the cognitive processes investigated have undergone little variation in the proposed times. Research is still controversial in its conclusions, because it shows that stress sometimes increases the level of attention and sometimes reduces it (3,16) . An experimental study found that stress impairs the attention process due to the increase in the amount of irrelevant information (3) .…”

A critical review of self‐regulated learning interventions for children with attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder

“…As mentioned, EF deficits in youth with ADHD correlate with impairments in self‐regulation (Barkley, ). In the present review, only two studies used neurological assessments to measure EF and monitor changes in EF following SRL interventions (i.e., Menezes, Dias, Trevisan, Carreiro, & Seabra, ; Miranda, Presentación, Siegenthaler, & Jara, ). Future studies should examine the degree of EF impairments in students with ADHD, as well as changes in EF impairment following SRL intervention.…”

Effectiveness of Cognitive Training for School-Aged Children and Adolescents With Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Systematic Review

“…The amount of time participants spent in training ranged between 375 and 3,840 min (average of 1,096 min per intervention). Two types of intervention materials were considered: computerized (Beck et al, 2010;Steiner et al, 2011Steiner et al, , 2014Green et al, 2012;Johnstone et al, 2012;Egeland et al, 2013;van der Oord et al, 2014;van Dongen-Boomsma et al, 2014;Dovis et al, 2015;Azami et al, 2016;Bigorra et al, 2016;Davis et al, 2018;Minder et al, 2018) and non-computerized cognitive training (Tamm et al, 2013;Menezes et al, 2015;Re et al, 2015;Tamm and Nakonezny, 2015;Hannesdottir et al, 2017;Qian et al, 2017;Shuai et al, 2017;Capodieci et al, 2018). One study used both types of intervention in order to compare their efficacy (van der Donk et al, 2015).…”