Background: Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is often associated with frontal executive impairment in children. Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and anxiety disorders (AD) frequently accompany ADHD, but the impact of these comorbid disorders on cognition remains elusive. The five-point test (FPT), a design fluency task, has been shown to be sensitive to neurological damage, specifically to frontal lobe lesions in patients with brain injuries. The purpose of this study was to compare the performances of neurotypical children with that of children with ADHD, ADHD-ODD, and ADHD-AD on the FPT in order to examine whether these groups could be distinguished from one another based on their cognitive profile.
Methods: A total of 111 children aged 8 to 11 years old participated in the study. Six measures from the FPT were used to characterize their performance.
Results: Statistically significant differences between groups were observed for five of the six FPT measures. Essentially, children with ADHD-ODD made more repeated designs than the three other groups (control p > 0.001, ADHD p = 0.008, ADHD-AD p = 0.008), while children with ADHD-AD produced fewer total and correct designs than the control and ADHD groups (p = 0.009).
Conclusions: This suggests that comorbidities have an additive impact on the cognitive profile of children with ADHD. Design fluency may be a sensitive measure for capturing the subtle cognitive deficits that are likely to be involved in these disorders.
Keywords: anxiety disorders; attention deficit and disruptive behavior disorders; developmental disabilities; executive function; oppositional defiant disorder.