A systematic review of behavioral and neurobiological profiles associated with coexisting attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and developmental coordination disorder

Marija Pranjić; Navin Rahman; Adelia Kamenetskiy; Kaitlin Mulligan; Stephen Pihl; Anne B Arnett

doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105389

A systematic review of behavioral and neurobiological profiles associated with coexisting attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and developmental coordination disorder

Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2023 Oct:153:105389. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105389. Epub 2023 Sep 12.

Authors

Marija Pranjić¹, Navin Rahman², Adelia Kamenetskiy², Kaitlin Mulligan², Stephen Pihl², Anne B Arnett³

Affiliations

¹ Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: marija.pranjic@childrens.harvard.edu.
² Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

PMID: 37704094
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105389

Abstract

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and developmental coordination disorder (DCD) co-occur in approximately 50% of cases. This study aimed to characterize the behavioral, cognitive, and neurobiological profiles of co-occurring ADHD and DCD diagnoses by mapping, synthesizing, and providing a critical appraisal of the existing literature. A systematic search was conducted across four databases (MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Embase, and Scopus) to identify studies comparing a coexisting ADHD+DCD diagnosis to ADHD and DCD alone. From 2353 screened articles, 15 behavioral and 10 neuroimaging studies were included. Collectively, these studies suggest that the comorbid ADHD+DCD presentation constitutes a more severe phenotype characterized by neurocognitive differences associated with both conditions. Despite sharing some common neural features, our findings support the separate etiology hypothesis indicating that neural network alterations in individuals with ADHD+DCD represent a unique neural pattern rather than a sum of ADHD and DCD characteristics. Considering the heterogeneity inherent to both ADHD and DCD, future studies should involve rigorous and comprehensive assessment procedures to delineate how different subtypes of each diagnosis relate to distinct performance characteristics.

Keywords: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); Comorbidity; Developmental coordination disorder (DCD); Dyspraxia; Neurodevelopmental disorders.

Publication types

Review