A very common cause of children's behavior disorder disturbance is an entity described as the hyperkinetic impulse disorder. This is characterized by hyperactivity, short attention span and poor powers of concentration, irritability, impulsiveness, variability, and poor schoolwork. The existence of this complexity may lead to many psychological…

Objective: The current study examined the impact of the gender of children with ADHD on teachers' perceptions toward inattentive, hyperactive, or oppositional behaviors, and how these perceptions relate to teachers' ratings of children's impairment and referral recommendations. Method: Teachers read eight vignettes depicting boys and girls with…

Background: DSM-IV specifies three ADHD subtypes; the combined, the hyperactive-impulsive and the inattentive. Little is known about the developmental relationships underlying these subtypes. The objective of this study was to describe the development of parent-reported hyperactivity-impulsivity and inattention symptoms from childhood to…

Inattentive-hyperactive and oppositional behavior have been hypothesized to be developmental precursors to conduct problems. We tested these hypotheses using a longitudinal sample of 6,466 offspring of women selected from nationally representative US households. Conduct problems across 8-13 years were robustly predicted by conduct problems at 4-7…

The study adopted a person-centered approach to examine whether clusters of children could be identified on the basis of temperament profiles assessed on four occasions from infancy to early childhood, and if so whether differing temperament clusters were associated with subsequent differences in behavior problems, social skills, and school…

Objective: Developmental and subtype differences in behavioral assets and problems were examined in 318 children newly diagnosed with ADHD. Method: Three age groups were compared: 4 to 6.9 years (n = 95), 7 to 9.9 years (n = 136), and 10 to 15 years (n = 87); with two subtypes examined: inattentive (n = 151), and hyperactive/combined (n = 167).…

This study reports on an intervention involving massage, yoga and relaxation delivered to young children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Children (n = 126) were invited to participate in the Self-discovery Programme (SDP) with parental consent. A total of 107 children aged 8-11 years completed the SDP and all measures. Children were…

This study investigated (1) hyperactive children's performance on an adaptation of the operant vigilance task, and (2) possible differences in performance when short intersignal intervals versus long intervals were employed. (Author/DB)

In his lectures published in 1902, George Still described 43 children in his clinical practice who had serious problems with sustained attention and self-regulation. George Still certainly did not use the current terminology for this disorder, but many historians of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have inferred that the children he…

The authors comment on an article by C. Conners et al which reports the findings of a study to examine the relationship between food additives and hyperkinesis in children (6-12 years old). (SBH)

Objective: Compare observed and forecasted efficacy of mixed amphetamine salts extended release (MAS-XR; Adderall) with atomoxetine (Strattera) in ADHD children. Method: The authors analyze data from a randomized, double-blind, multicenter, parallel-group, forced-dose-escalation laboratory school study of children ages 6 to 12 with ADHD combined…

The attention controls of 30 learning disabled and 30 normal males (8-to 11-years-old) were tested by a vigilance task in which vigilance was defined as ability to detect infrequently occurring signals over a prolonged time period when signals were embedded in a background of regularly occurring events. (Author/GW)

Performances of 12 hyperactive learning disabled (LD) boys and 12 non-hyperactive LD boys were compared with two groups of 12 normal control boys (6-11 years old) on a visual search task. Ss were asked to locate a target letter appearing within an array of randomly selected letters during cued and non-cued trials. Results indicated that in the…

This article briefly discusses the use of amphetamines in the treatment of hyperkinesis or minimal brain dysfunction. (JMF)

Objective: Methylphenidate has four optical isomers due to two asymmetries (erythro-threo and dextro-levo). The initial commercial formulation eliminated the erythro isomer, but the dextro-levo asymmetry was racemic, with equal amounts of d and l-threo isomers (d,l-MPH). Previous work has suggested that the d-threo isomer methylphenidate (d-MPH)…