Young adults who are diagnosed with ADHD may have some subtle physiological signs leading to a more precise diagnosis, researchers say. Penn State researchers suggested through their study that these people with ADHD had more difficulty inhibiting a motor response when they are actively engaged in motor tasks.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been a common disorder for kids. It can, however, continue to affect up to 65 percent of children as they become adults, as researchers from Penn State said.
There are already large groups that are labeled 'ADHD,' with different symptoms, Kristina A. Neely, assistant professor, kinesiology quoted by Science Daily as saying. One of the goals of the ADHD research team is to discover unique physiological signals that may distinguish the said different subgroups.
Some people with ADHD may have poor control of their motor systems, as previous studies report. However, in previous tasks, motor, and cognitive function were respectively evaluated with a key-press response: "You hit the button, or you didn't," said Neely.
The Penn research team measured how much force an individual can come up with when a continuous motor task is done. Such type of job has given more information than the dichotomous 'yes/no' response that they also had previously.
Neely and the team found that ADHD participants produced more force on trials every time they were told to withhold a response. The findings were presented at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting on Nov. 15.
The team promotes the understanding of the impact of particular types of ADHD along with the effect on motor function so as to yield to the right diagnoses. Such move will be useful for determining a correct treatment option for patients who have their specific symptom profile. This way, parents with children with ADHD will also have the chance to attain healing at the early stage. For adults with ADHD on the other hand, they will have possible healing as well if the right treatment is discovered.
