Attention network functioning in children with anxiety disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and non-clinical anxiety

Author(s)

Mogg, K. ^[1] ; Salum, G. A. ^{[2, 3]} ; Bradley, B. P. ^[1] ; Gadelha, A. ^{[4, 3]} ; Pan, P. ^{[4, 3]} ; Alvarenga, P. ^{[5, 3]} ; Rohde, L. A. ^{[5, 2, 3]} ; Pine, D. S. ^[6] ; Manfro, G. G. ^{[2, 3]}

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Southampton, Dept Psychol, Southampton SO17 1BJ, Hants - England

^[2] Univ Fed Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS - Brazil

^[3] Natl Inst Dev Psychiat Children & Adolescents INC, Porto Alegre, RS - Brazil

^[4] Univ Fed Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[5] Univ Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[6] NIMH, Intramural Res Program, Bethesda, MD 20892 - USA

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE; v. 45, n. 12, p. 2633-2646, SEP 2015.
• Web of Science Citations: 15

Abstract

Background Research with adults suggests that anxiety is associated with poor control of executive attention. However, in children, it is unclear (a) whether anxiety disorders and non-clinical anxiety are associated with deficits in executive attention, (b) whether such deficits are specific to anxiety versus other psychiatric disorders, and (c) whether there is heterogeneity among anxiety disorders (in particular, specific phobia versus other anxiety disorders). Method We examined executive attention in 860 children classified into three groups: anxiety disorders (n=67), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; n=67) and no psychiatric disorder (n=726). Anxiety disorders were subdivided into: anxiety disorders excluding specific phobia (n=43) and specific phobia (n=21). The Attention Network Task was used to assess executive attention, alerting and orienting. Results Findings indicated heterogeneity among anxiety disorders, as children with anxiety disorders (excluding specific phobia) showed impaired executive attention, compared with disorder-free children, whereas children with specific phobia showed no executive attention deficit. Among disorder-free children, executive attention was less efficient in those with high, relative to low, levels of anxiety. There were no anxiety-related deficits in orienting or alerting. Children with ADHD not only had poorer executive attention than disorder-free children, but also higher orienting scores, less accurate responses and more variable response times. Conclusions Impaired executive attention in children (reflected by difficulty inhibiting processing of task-irrelevant information) was not fully explained by general psychopathology, but instead showed specific associations with anxiety disorders (other than specific phobia) and ADHD, as well as with high levels of anxiety symptoms in disorder-free children. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 08/57896-8 - National Institute for Developmental Psychiatry
• Grantee: Eurípedes Constantino Miguel Filho
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants