Understanding Attentional Functioning in Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder-Could This Improve Diagnostic Specificity?

ABSTRACT: The diagnostic criteria for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) reflect the behavioural and functional outcomes of cognitive processes. Historically they have been based on external observations and lack specificity: clinical cohorts of children meeting diagnostic criteria show that around 40% may also meet diagnostic criteria for oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). We have proposed a clinical model to explain this: the Mental Effort Reward Imbalances model of ADHD (MERIM). This model views the lower levels of task completion that underlie several of the diagnostic criteria for ADHD as being due to a summation of deficits in executive functioning and reward processing. The subjective experience of inadequate reward from task completion may explain the reduced motivation, negat

SUBMITTER: Babajanyan D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10049217 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature