Gabriel Coutinho
Psicólogo e mestrando em Psiquiatria e Saúde Mental pela Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)
Paulo Mattos
Psiquiatra, professor adjunto da UFRJ e coordenador do Grupo de Estudos do Déficit de Atenção (GEDA) do Instituto de Psiquiatria da UFRJ
Catia Araújo
Psicóloga e mestra em Informática pela UFRJ.
Monica Duchesne
Psicóloga e doutoranda em Psiquiatria e Saúde Mental pela UFRJ. Grupo de Obesidade e Transtornos Alimentares (GOTA) IEDE/IPUB
Abstract:
Objective: To investigate if performances in a visual attention test could discriminate between children and adolescents with ADHD and normal subjects. Methods: 102 children and adolescents diagnosed with ADHD according to DSM-IV were submitted to the Test of Visual Attention (TAVIS-III) and had their performance compared to 678 normal paired subjects who comprised a control comparison group. All of the subjects were sequentially recruited from one public and two private schools, following parents’ authorization. Results: ROC curves analysis have shown that simultaneous impairment in hit reaction time of focused attention, omission errors in shifted attention and commission errors in sustained attention revealed high sensibility and specificity, with positive predictive value of 87.5%. The negative predictive value was of 99% when the aforementioned indexes occurred simultaneously within normal range. Conclusion: The Test of Visual Attention (TAVIS-III) was efficient to discriminate persons with ADHD and normal persons in this non clinical sample.
Keywords:Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, attention, neuropsychological tests, diagnosis