[Children's and adolescents' perception of their quality of life in cases of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder with and without pharmacological treatment and in controls]. / Percepcion de niños y adolescentes sobre la calidad de vida en casos de trastorno por deficit de atencion/hiperactividad con y sin tratamiento farmacologico y en controles.

INTRODUCTION: Health-related quality of life perceived by children and teenagers is important to assess the effects of therapeutic intervention. AIM: To analyze quality of life, comparing cases of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) treated with methylphenidate, untreated cases and controls. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Sampling of 228 participants between 8 and 14 years-old. Consecutive sampling in ADHD according to DSM-IV criteria (ADHD Rating Scales IV) and random sampling of matched controls by sex and age. Evaluation of quality of life using KIDSCREEN-52 (children version). ANOVA with Bonferroni correction was used. RESULTS: There is a moderate significant correlation between greater intensity of ADHD symptoms and worse quality of life, except in the dimension of physical well-being. Cases of untreated ADHD have significantly worse quality of life than controls on psychic well-being, mood, autonomy school environment and social acceptance. Cases of treated ADHD present similar results, except in the school environment and psychological well-being. The cases of ADHD treated only differ significantly from ADHD not treated in having a better school environment. CONCLUSIONS: The cases of ADHD present dimensions of KIDSCREEN-52 with worse quality of life than controls and the cases of ADHD treated with methylphenidate only differ significantly from those not treated in presenting better results in the school environment.

TITLE: Percepcion de niños y adolescentes sobre la calidad de vida en casos de trastorno por deficit de atencion/hiperactividad con y sin tratamiento farmacologico y en controles.Introduccion. La calidad de vida relacionada con la salud percibida por niños y adolescentes es un factor importante para valorar los efectos de una intervencion terapeutica. Objetivo. Analizar la calidad de vida comparando casos con trastorno por deficit de atencion/hiperactividad (TDAH) tratados farmacologicamente con metilfenidato, casos no tratados y controles. Sujetos y metodos. Muestra de 228 participantes de 8-14 años. Muestreo consecutivo de casos de TDAH segun los criterios del Manual diagnostico y estadistico de los trastornos mentales, cuarta edicion, y muestreo aleatorio de controles emparejados por sexo, edad y zona sociodemografica. Evaluacion de la calidad de vida mediante el KIDSCREEN-52 (version niños y adolescentes). Para responder al objetivo se utilizo ANOVA con correccion de Bonferroni. Resultados. Observamos una correlacion significativa moderada entre mayor intensidad de sintomas de TDAH y peor calidad de vida, excepto en el bienestar fisico. Los casos de TDAH no tratados tienen significativamente peor calidad de vida que los controles en bienestar psiquico, autonomia, estado de animo, entorno escolar y aceptacion social. Los casos de TDAH tratados observan similares resultados excepto en el entorno escolar y el bienestar psiquico, que no presentan diferencias significativas con los controles. Los casos de TDAH tratados por comparacion con los de TDAH no tratados solo presentan significativamente mejor calidad de vida en el entorno escolar. Conclusion. Los casos de TDAH presentan dimensiones del KIDSCREEN-52 con peor calidad de vida que los controles y los casos de TDAH tratados con metilfenidato solo se diferencian significativamente de los no tratados porque presentan mejores resultados en el entorno escolar.

Nonlinear analysis of actigraphic signals for the assessment of the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most common neurobehavioral disorder in children and adolescents; however, its etiology is still unknown, which hinders the existence of reliable, fast and inexpensive standard diagnostic methods. In this paper, we propose a novel methodology for automatic diagnosis of the combined type of ADHD based on nonlinear signal processing of 24h-long actigraphic registries. Since it relies on actigraphy measurements, it constitutes an inexpensive and non-invasive objective diagnostic method. Our results on real data reach 96.77% sensitivity and 84.38% specificity by means of multidimensional classifiers driven by combined features from different time intervals. Our analysis also reveals that, if features from a single time interval are used, the whole 24-h interval is the only one that yields classification figures with practical diagnostic capabilities. Overall, our figures overcome those obtained by actigraphy-based methods reported and are comparable with others based on more expensive (and not so convenient) adquisition methods.

[Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: intellectual profile and the freedom from distraction factor]. / Trastorno por déficit de atención/hiperactividad: perfil intelectual y factor de independencia a la distracción.

INTRODUCTION: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) usually presents a neuropsychological profile in which the freedom from distraction factor (FDF) is affected to a greater extent than the verbal comprehension factor (VCF) and the perceptual organisation factor (POF). AIM: To determine the intellectual profile of clinical cases with ADHD through a specific analysis of the FDF, in which we evaluated the differences compared with the VCF and the POF, between types of ADHD and with WISC-R criteria, as well as the variables that affect the probability of FDF < VCF and POF. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Our study involved a clinical sample of 167 cases of ADHD between 6 and 16 years of age. The cases were defined according to DSM-IV criteria and the evaluation was performed using WISC-R, the Child Symptom Inventory and the social and occupational activity assessment scale. Both descriptive and exploratory statistics were used. Means were compared using ANOVA and/or t tests. Alpha was accepted if it was equal to or below 0.05 and a logistic regression method was used (alpha model parameters below or equal to 0.05). In each factor a 95% confidence interval and odds ratio were determined. RESULTS: The criterion FDF < VCF and FOP accounted for 71.3% of the cases with ADHD and FDF < (VCF + POF) / 2 represented 81.4% (sensitivity: 81.4%). The FDF is significantly lower than both the mean that corresponds to factorial criteria derived from the WISC-R and the VCF and POF in the cases that were analysed. The mean FDF scores were significantly higher in ADHD-H (a type in which hyperactive-impulsivity predominates) than in ADHD-C (combined type) and ADHD-I (inattentive type). Comorbidity, social or school activity and intellectual quotient do not have a significant influence on the probability that FDF < VCF and POF. CONCLUSIONS: The FDF is a neuropsychological dimension that is useful in evaluating ADHD.