Objective: There is a current debate on characterizing children with pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD) through a profile within the child behaviour checklist (CBCL), and on the involvement of the 5-HT system in the underlying neurobiological processes of PBD. The aim of the present paper was to investigate reaction time performance in patients with CBCL-PBD and to discriminate ADHD from ADHD with CBCL-PBD with respect to diminished 5-HT functioning and reaction time.
Methods: Twenty-two patients with ADHD received the rapid tryptophan depletion test (RTD) thus lowering the central-nervous 5-HT synthesis rate within a placebo-controlled double-blind within-subject crossover design. Reaction time was assessed using a competitive reaction time game with low and high provocation after both depletion and placebo intake. The study sample was divided into high and low scorers according to their CBCL-PBD scores.
Results: Comparing those six patients with the highest and clinically significant CBCL-PBD scores versus those six patients with the lowest, patients with a high CBCL-PBD score showed a slower reaction time under RTD compared to patients with low CBCL-PBD scores after high provocation. CBCL-'aggression' discriminated between the two groups.
Conclusions: The results suggest alterations in 5-HT functioning in CBCL-PBD-spectrum patients, and 'aggression' as a potential moderator variable to ADHD.
(c) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.