Unique considerations in the assessment of ADHD in college students

Developmental changes in the endorsement of psychotic-like experiences from middle childhood through young adulthood

BACKGROUND

Children tend to endorse psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) at higher rates than adults, although little is known about how specific symptom endorsement changes across the span of development. Here we take an observational approach to examine trends in PLE endorsement by age in two non-clinical samples: one of school-aged children and another of late adolescents and early adults.

METHODS

Prodromal Questionnaire-Brief (child and adult versions) responses were investigated in individuals ages 9-13 (n = 11865) and 16-24 (n = 3209) from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study (ABCD) and the Multisite Assessment of Psychosis-risk Study (MAP), respectively. Item-level endorsement and distressing item frequencies were examined by age throughout both cohorts.

RESULTS

Unusual perceptual experiences were generally endorsed more heavily in childhood, while other PLEs were endorsed in adolescents and adults up to 4.8 times more frequently than in children. Additionally, certain experiences were endorsed by as many as 73 percent of the older sample.

CONCLUSIONS

Considerations for the measurement of PLEs in childhood and adolescence are underscored. Findings from these two samples provide a window into the course of these PLEs and may serve as a scaffold for future research investigating normative versus risk-related experiences during development.

Validating Embedded Validity Indicators of Feigned ADHD-Associated Cognitive Impairment Using the MOXO-d-CPT

BACKGROUND

The current study aimed to validate the utility of previously established validity indicators derived from MOXO-d-CPT's continuous performance test.

METHOD

Healthy simulators feigned impairment after searching online for relevant information, an ecologically valid coaching condition (n = 39). They were compared to ADHD patients (n = 36) and healthy controls (n = 38).

RESULTS

Simulators performed significantly worse than ADHD patients in all MOXO-d-CPT indices, as well as a scale that integrates their contributions (feigned ADHD scale). Three indices (attention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity) and the latter scale exhibited adequate discriminative capacity. Higher education was associated with an exaggerated impairment among simulators, easing their detection.

CONCLUSION

Similarity between the current study and a previous study which examned the utlity of the MOXO-d-CPT validity indicators, increases our confidence in the efficacy of the latters embedded validity indicators. Though the findings provide initial validation of these validity indicators, generalizing beyond highly functioning participants necessitates further research.