Validation of the French Version of Conners' Parent Rating Scale-Revised, Short Form in ADHD-Diagnosed Children and Comparison With Control Children

A Robust Movement Quantification Algorithm of Hyperactivity Detection for ADHD Children Based on 3D Depth Images

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common childhood mental disorders. Hyperactivity is a typical symptom of ADHD in children. Clinicians diagnose this symptom by evaluating the children's activities based on subjective rating scales and clinical experience. In this work, an objective system is proposed to quantify the movements of children with ADHD automatically. This system presents a new movement detection and quantification method based on depth images. A novel salient object extraction method is proposed to segment body regions. In movement detection, we explore a new local search algorithm to detect any potential motions of children based on three newly designed evaluation metrics. In the movement quantification, two parameters are investigated to quantify the participation degree and the displacements of each body part in the movements. This system is tested by a depth dataset of children with ADHD. The movement detection results of this dataset mainly range from 91.0% to 95.0%. The movement quantification results of children are consistent with the clinical observations. The public MSR Action 3D dataset is tested to validate the performance of this system.

Increased prevalence of parent ratings of ADHD symptoms among children with bilateral congenital cataracts

AIM

To investigate the behavioral and psychological disorders and the prevalence of parent ratings of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms among children with bilateral congenital cataracts (CCs).

METHODS

This cross-sectional study investigated children with bilateral CC aged 3-8y (CC group) using Conners' Parent Rating Scale-48 (CPRS-48) from July to December 2016. The abnormal rates of psychological symptoms in CC children and normal vision (NV) children were compared using the Chi-square test. The scores of CC children were compared with those of NV children and the Chinese urban norm using the independent samples t-test and one-sample t-test, respectively.

RESULTS

A total of 262 valid questionnaires were collected. The ratio of CC children to NV children was 119:143. The overall rate of psychological symptoms in CC children was 2.28 times higher than that in NV children (46.22% vs 20.28%, Pearson's χ ²=20.062; P<0.001). CC children showed higher scores for conduct problems, learning problems, impulsiveness/hyperactivity, anxiety, and hyperactivity index than NV children and the Chinese urban norm, particularly between the ages of 3 and 5y. Furthermore, male children aged between 6 and 8y showed a higher impulsive/hyperactive score than females of the same age (t=6.083, P<0.001).

CONCLUSION

Children with bilateral CCs have a higher rate of ADHD symptoms than children with NV. This study provides clinical evidence that screening for psychological symptoms and particularly for ADHD symptoms in children with bilateral CC are recommended for an early diagnosis and timely treatment.

A virtual reality application for assessment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in school-aged children

Background and objective: The development of objective assessment tools for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has become a hot research topic in recent years. This study was conducted to explore the feasibility and availability of virtual reality (VR) for evaluating symptoms of ADHD. Methods: School-aged children were recruited. The children with ADHD or without ADHD were assigned into the ADHD group or Control group, respectively. They were all evaluated using the Conners' Parent Rating Scale (CPRS), Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), Integrated Visual and Auditory Continuous Performance Test (IVA-CPT), and a VR test. Results: The correct items, incorrect items, and the accuracy rate of the VR test of the children with ADHD were significantly different with those of the children in the Control group. The correct items, incorrect items, total time, and accuracy of the VR test were significantly correlated with the scores of IVA-CPT (auditory attention and visual attention), CPRS (impulsion/hyperactivity and ADHD index), and CBCL (attention problems and social problems), respectively. Discussion: The results supported the discriminant validity of the VR test for evaluating ADHD in school-age children suffering from learning problems. The VR test results are associated with the commonly used clinical measurements results. A VR test is interesting for children and therefore it attracts them to complete the test; whilst at the same time, it can also effectively evaluate ADHD symptoms.