ADHD in Children
Visual Abstract
Executive function impairments in high IQ children and adolescents with ADHD
Thomas Edwards Brown, Philipp Christian Reichel, Donald Michael Quinlan
Summarized by:
April 23, 2023
study source
Open Journal of Psychiatry
July 2011
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What they studied
Researchers wanted to see whether intelligent children with ADHD and high IQs still had cognitive deficits in executive function.
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What they found
They found that most children with ADHD and high IQs showed evidence of executive function deficits. Many children showed severe deficits in areas such as processing speed and working memory.
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What this means
This study shows that it is possible to have a high IQ and still have cognitive issues for those with ADHD. High-IQ children and adults can still struggle at school and work from ADHD.
Executive function impairments in high IQ children and adolescents with ADHD
Objectives
ADHD can affect children with all levels of intelligence. Though it can be difficult to diagnose, even highly intelligent children can have ADHD.
This study wanted to see whether highly intelligent children with ADHD had executive function deficits, a cognitive deficit commonly found in ADHD.
Executive function is responsible for, among other things, sustaining attention and managing impulses, functions that those with ADHD are known to struggle with.
What is executive function?
Study Quote
To demonstrate that high IQ children and adolescents diagnosed with ADHD tend to suffer from executive function (EF) impairments that: a) can be identified with a combination of standardized measures and normed self-report data; and b) occur more frequently in this group than in the gene...
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Methods
This study collected data from 117 children and teenagers ages 6 to 17.
Researchers analyzed the children’s test results on eight executive function and cognition measures.
They compared the results to expected averages based on the children’s age and profiles.
Study Quote
From charts of 117 children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 years with high IQ ( ≥ 120) who fully met DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for ADHD, data on 8 normed measures of executive function (EF) were extracted: IQ index scores for working memory and processing speed, a standardized measure of ...
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Results
Researchers found that most participants in the study showed impairments in at least five of the eight metrics studied.
A study of children with ADHD and high IQs found that the majority had significant cognitive deficits in executive function.
Despite the fact that all participants had high IQs, the results showed that most had significant cognitive deficits in areas associated with ADHD.
Researchers specifically extracted data from three key functions and found high rates of severe deficits in these areas.
Around 42% of the highly intelligent participants showed severe deficits in processing speed, a metric that refers to how fast your brain processes information and calculations.
Of note, you can be highly intelligent and still have difficulties with processing speed. Many brilliant individuals can take their time to think.
Similar rates of severe deficits were found in working memory and verbal comprehension.
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High IQ clearly does not protect individuals in childhood, adolescence or adulthood from having impairments of ADHD.
Study Quote
Sixty-two percent of participants were significantly impaired on at least 5 of these 8 markers of EF. Chi-square comparisons of scores from these high IQ participants were significantly different (p < 0.001) from standardization norms for each of the eight EF measures.
Conclusions
These results show that even highly intelligent children with ADHD can have severe cognitive deficits in areas associated with ADHD. Brilliant children can have ADHD and can still suffer from cognitive deficits from their ADHD.
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While some of these relative impairments may be within the average range of scores on an absolute scale, they represent significant difficulties for these very bright individuals who tend to have great difficulty in achieving at the academic level generally expected from those with such high overall cognitive abilities.
Similar studies have shown this effect in adults with ADHD as well.
Study Quote
High IQ children and adolescents with ADHD, despite their cognitive strengths, tend to suffer from significant impairments of executive functions that can be assessed with these measures; incidence of these impairments is significantly greater than in the general population. These result...
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