Sluggish Cognitive Tempo in a Child and Adolescent Clinical Outpatient Setting

Abstract

Sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) symptoms have largely emerged from investigations of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Recent research has demonstrated the relevance of SCT symptoms in the field of clinical child and adolescent psychiatry. The goal of this research was to study the symptoms of SCT in a clinical child and adolescent sample and to define its features and comorbid conditions. We reviewed 834 clinical records of patients referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and examined SCT symptoms and their relation with sociodemographic data, clinical diagnosis, comorbid conditions, Child Behavior Checklist dimensions, and intelligence quotient. Of the 515 patients (age range, 4 to 17 y, 62.5% male) for whom a fully completed Child Behavior Checklist for Children and Adolescents was available, 20.8% showed high levels of SCT symptoms. SCT symptoms were strongly associated with age, internalizing symptoms, learning disabilities, and ADHD inattentive subtype (ADHD-I). No significant correlations with intelligence quotient were found. We concluded that SCT symptoms are highly prevalent in a clinical sample, and that these symptoms might be related to the difficulties that some individuals have in responding to demands in their environments, such as academic or social demands, as they increase over time.

Sluggish Cognitive Tempo: Sociodemographic, Behavioral, and Clinical Characteristics in a Population of Catalan School Children

“…Finally, we also found a positive association between dyslexia symptoms and SCT symptoms. These findings are consistent with a previous study that reported a positive association between SCT symptoms and learning disorders (Camprodon-Rosanas et al, 2016).…”

Clinical differentiation of sluggish cognitive tempo and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children.

“…As expected (Barkley, 2013; Camprodon-Rosanas et al, 2016; Carlson & Mann, 2002), among children with elevated SCT, those who also had ADHD were most likely to meet for elevated ADHD based on predominantly IN rather than HI or combined-symptom elevations. Nevertheless, as also found in previous studies (Barkley, 2013; Hinshaw, Carte, Sami, Treuting, & Zupan, 2002; Marshall, Evans, Eiraldi, Becker, & Power, 2014), a subset of children with elevated ratings of SCT met criteria for a co-occurring ADHD-combined presentation.…”

“…As expected (Barkley, 2013;Camprodon-Rosanas et al, 2016;Carlson & Mann, 2002), among children with elevated SCT, those who also had ADHD were most likely to meet for elevated ADHD based on predominantly IN rather than HI or combined-symptom This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.…”

Sluggish Cognitive Tempo Predicts Academic Fluency, Beyond Contributions of Core Academic Skills, Attention, and Motor Speed

“…In contrast, other work has not shown a consistent association between SCT ratings and child academic performance (Langberg et al, 2014; Marshall et al, 2014), with Bauermeister et al (2012) finding stronger associations between achievement and inattention than between achievement and SCT. A complicating factor may be that children with diagnosed learning disabilities (LD) may be more likely to manifest behaviors associated with SCT symptoms than those without LD diagnoses (Comprodon-Rosanas et al, 2016).…”