Clinical assessment and voxel-based morphometry study of untreated Adult Attention deficit hyperkinetic disorders patients

PurposeAdult ADHD is one of the most undiagnosed diseases mainly because of the misperception that ADHD is a childhood disease. In this study, we assess the characteristic features of adult ADHD using clinical assessment and structural Magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) MethodsWe obtained structural MRI data from the UCLA Consortium for Neuropsychiatric Phenomics for 21 untreated adult ADHD patients and 21 age and gender propensity-matched control patients. For clinical assessment, we compared the scores of Barrat impulsivity score, Dickman impulsivity inventory II, and Eysencks Impulsivity Inventory. We then compared grey matter volume (GMV) between ADHD and control patients using a two-sample t-test. We also assessed the correlation between different clinical assessments and GMV. ResultsBased on our results, adult ADHD showed significantly higher impulsivity scores, however, no significant difference in functional impulsivity scores or empathy summary scores. For sMRI, there was a significant decrease of GMV of the left cuneus in female ADHD patients. For clinical assessment scales, only the motor impulsiveness subdomain showed a significant positive correlation with the GMV of the left precuneus. ConclusionsIn this study, we assessed the characteristic sMRI features and clinical assessment scores for untreated adult ADHD. Our results show that a study with a bigger sample size can identify diagnostic features for adult ADHD.