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Towards operationalising internal distractibility (Mind Wandering) in adults with ADHD

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2017

Joseph Biederman ,
Maura Fitzgerald ,
Mai Uchida ,
Thomas J. Spencer ,
Ronna Fried ,
Jennifer Wicks ,
Alexandra Saunders  and
Stephen V. Faraone
Joseph Biederman*
Affiliation:
Clinical and Research Programs in Pediatric Psychopharmacology and Adult ADHD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Maura Fitzgerald
Affiliation:
Clinical and Research Programs in Pediatric Psychopharmacology and Adult ADHD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
Mai Uchida
Affiliation:
Clinical and Research Programs in Pediatric Psychopharmacology and Adult ADHD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Thomas J. Spencer
Affiliation:
Clinical and Research Programs in Pediatric Psychopharmacology and Adult ADHD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Ronna Fried
Affiliation:
Clinical and Research Programs in Pediatric Psychopharmacology and Adult ADHD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Jennifer Wicks
Affiliation:
Clinical and Research Programs in Pediatric Psychopharmacology and Adult ADHD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
Alexandra Saunders
Affiliation:
Clinical and Research Programs in Pediatric Psychopharmacology and Adult ADHD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
Stephen V. Faraone
Affiliation:
Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, USA K.G.Jebsen Centre for Psychiatric Disorders, Department of Biomedicine, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
*
*Joseph Biederman, 55 Fruit Street, Yawkey 6A, Boston, MA 02114, USA. Tel: +617 726 1743; Fax: +617 724 3742; E-mail: jbiederman@partners.org
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Abstract

Objective

To investigate whether specific symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can help identify ADHD patients with mind wandering.

Methods

Subjects were adults ages 18–55 of both sexes (n=41) who completed the Mind-Wandering Questionnaire (MWQ) and the ADHD module of the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children Epidemiologic Version. We used Spearman’s rank correlation and Pearson’s χ2 analyses to examine associations between the ADHD module and the MWQ and receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analyses to evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of the ADHD module.

Results

Out of the three ADHD domains, the inattentive ADHD scores had the strongest association with the MWQ (total: r s=0.34, df=39, p=0.03; inattentive: r s=0.38, df=39, p=0.02; Hyperactive: r s=0.17, df=39, p=0.28). Correlation analyses between individual items on the ADHD module and the MWQ showed that two inattention items (‘failure to pay attention to detail’ and ‘trouble following instructions’) were positively associated with total scores on the MWQ (p=0.02). These two inattention items had the strongest association with the MWQ (r s=0.45, df=38, p=0.004). ROC analyses showed that the combined score of the two significant inattention items had the highest efficiency (AUC=0.71) in classifying high-level mind wanderers as defined by scores greater than the median split on the MWQ. The combined score of the two inattention items best identified high-level mind wanderers.

Conclusion

Results suggest a way to operationalise mind wandering using the symptoms of ADHD.

Keywords

ADHDadultsinattentionmind wandering
Type
Original Articles
Information
Acta Neuropsychiatrica , Volume 29 , Issue 6 , December 2017 , pp. 330 - 336
Copyright
© Scandinavian College of Neuropsychopharmacology 2017 

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