Executive Dysfunction in Children and adolescents with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

The purpose of this study is to compare the executive functions children and adolescents who suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD) with normal children. Twenty children with ADHD were compared to 19 healthy children terms of some executive functions using the computerized version of Tower London, Continuous Performance Test (CPT), and Stroop Color Test. In "Tower of London", the performance of children with ADHD wasworse than normal children (p<0.05). In Continuous Performance Test, thecommission errors in children with ADHD were significantly more than thenormal group (p<0.01). In Stroop Test, the time spent to name the colors wassignificantly higher in ADHD group. A significant correlation was also foundbetween the performance of children on Tower of London and CPT (P<0.05). This study demonstrates that children and adolescents whosuffer from ADHD have some impairment of executive functions, particularlyplanning and inhibition to response, but not in attention.