Decision making in children with ADHD only, ADHD-anxious/depressed, and control children using a child version of the Iowa Gambling Task.

OBJECTIVE

The goal of this study is to investigate decision making in children with ADHD using a child version of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). The effect of internalizing symptoms is also of interest.

METHOD: Twenty-one children with ADHD (high anxiety/depression and no anxiety/depression) are compared to an age- and sex-matched control group on the gambling task. Children in the ADHD-alone group demonstrate impaired performance on the IGT. In contrast, children in the control group and the ADHD-anxiety/depression group learn to choose more from the advantageous decks over time.

RESULTS

These findings of impaired decision making in children with ADHD parallel findings of real-life decision-making problems in this population.

CONCLUSION

Furthermore, the findings suggest that having a high number of internalizing symptoms leads to better performance for children with ADHD on this variant of the IGT.