La memoria de trabajo como elemento diferencial para el Trastorno por Déficit de Atención con Hiperactividad

Abstract

Introduction: The increasing number of children referred to Children and Adolescents Psychiatric Services under a suspect of showing an ADHD and the low proportion in which this diagnosis is confirmed, leads us to look for common characteristics in them all that help to find the cause of this over-demand. Objectives: To analyze the differences and similarities in Working Memory (WM) since it is the more vulnerable to distraction executive function and the one that affects the more to learning ability. Method: A clinical sample of 48 children (81.3%, males) with ages between six and 12, derived from Pediatrics under a supposed ADHD. Intelli-gence Quotient (IQ) and WM in both verbal and visuo-spatial modalities were measured. Results: The were not found statistically significant differences in WM between the diverse diagnostic groups and ADHD group, although combined subtype showed the lowest outcomes in both verbal and visuo-spatial modalities of these tasks. Besides the objectives, there were found significant differences in Verbal Comprehension area (VC), being this index higher in case of ADHD group. Discussion: There were not found specific difficulties in WM between children diagnosed as ADHD regarding those described as "other disorders", though relevant differences in other areas are noticeable between ADHD subtypes. This fact suggests the possibility of considering both subtypes as independent nosologies. The convenience of further investigation to that respect through more controlled methodology is proposed.