Is attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder a useful predictor of internalization problems?

In a recent study published in scientific reportresearchers evaluated the functional importance of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as a predictor of internalization problems.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has been described as social communication difficulties and repetitive and restrictive behavioral tendencies. In addition to the basic symptoms of ASD, a considerable amount of research has been done on the link between mental health problems and his AS, particularly internalizing disorders. Notably, internalization issues are also associated with decreased quality of life, physical health, and social activity in ASD and are targets for important interventions. ADHD is another neurodevelopmental disorder associated with internalizing disorders such as anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and depression. Still, research on internalization issues and clinical practice focuses much more on his ASD than on ADHD.

About research

In the present study, researchers explored positive associations between self-reported ADHD and ASD characteristics and internalization problems.

Recruitment was done through Prolific and gave a representative sample of the UK adult population, taking into account age and gender distribution. The sample included 504 of her from age 18 to her age of 79. Participants indicated their age, gender, and level of education on a scale of 0 to 7 in the International Standard Education Classification. No additional data on clinical diagnosis were collected.

The 28-item Short Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ-Short) assessed features of social and antisocial ASD, with 28 of some autistic traits and 28 of some autistic traits. resulted in a score between 112. AQ-Short can be used by both men and women. In addition, ADHD characteristics were measured with the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS). Its 18 items reflect the frequency of symptoms related to hyperactivity/impulsivity and inattention, with scores ranging from 0 for no ADHD features to 72 for some ADHD features. was the range. In particular, the reliability of ASRS was high in this survey.

The 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-735) measures how often subjects have had anxiety symptoms in the past 2 weeks and provides a score ranging from 0 for no anxiety to 21 for extreme anxiety. I was. The 9-item depression module of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-936) assessed the frequency of depressive symptoms during the past 2 weeks and provided scores ranging from 0 for no depression to 27 for severe depression. I was.

result

The study results noted that none of the observed data points were identified as multivariate outliers. Visual assessment of QQ plots in relation to standardized residuals, and scatterplots comparing standardized residuals to standardized expectations, may violate assumptions of homoscedasticity and normality. suggests that there is

Due to the expected overlap between ADHD and ASD, we detected an intermediate correlation between ASD and ADHD features. Anxiety and depression were associated with features of both ASD and ADHD. Depression and anxiety also showed strong correlations. To eliminate multicollinearity issues in multivariate analyses, we combined depression and anxiety into a combined estimate of internalization issues. Internalization difficulties were associated with ASD and ADHD features.

Age, gender, and education level were factors in a multiple regression analysis examining specific relationships between ASD and ADHD features and internalization problems. Internalization problems were uniquely predicted by ASD and ADHD traits. Beta coefficients indicated that trait ADHD was a more accurate predictor than trait ASD. However, the team noted that comparing beta coefficients alone is not sufficient to determine the relative significance of predictors.

ADHD characteristics clearly surpass ASD characteristics as the strongest predictors of internalization problems. The study also showed that the recall of dominance relationships estimated by this bootstrap was 100%. This suggests that as a population-level predictor of internalization problems, ADHD characteristics always outweigh his ASD characteristics.

The team also compared models incorporating predictors of interest, namely ADHD features or ASD traits, to null models containing other variables. The Bayes factor (BF10) classified ASD and ADHD traits as independent predictors of internalization problems. Although ADHD traits were significantly more predictive than ASD traits, there was ‘extreme’ evidence that ADHD traits predicted internalization problems similarly to ASD traits. The trends were the same for the anxiety and depression analyses.

Conclusion

The results of this study showed that ADHD and ASH specifically predict internalizing disorders such as depression and anxiety. Importantly, ADHD traits are very good predictors of internalization problems, and this association is virtually guaranteed to exist across populations. Additional studies are needed to replicate these findings and clarify the processes behind the observed associations, but this study provides important new evidence linking neurodevelopmental disorders to adult mental health. was presented.