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C K Conners

Publications and source records attributed to C K Conners.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1995

Binaural function in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the basic binaural function of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). DESIGN: Case-control study. Measures of binaural function were compared for children with and without ADHD. SUBJECTS: Forty-two children; 26 had ADHD and 16 were normal controls. INTERVENTIONS: None. RESULTS: For detection tasks, no differences were seen between children with ADHD and controls. For speech recognition tasks, the younger children with ADHD did not perform as well as the controls. CONCLUSIONS: Younger children with ADHD might have a reduced processing efficiency for signal recognition in certain types of noise, but not for signal detection.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

NIMH collaborative multisite multimodal treatment study of children with ADHD: I. Background and rationale.

OBJECTIVE: The National Institute of Mental Health's recently initiated 5-year, multisite, multimodal treatment study of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (MTA) is the first major clinical trial in its history focused on a childhood mental disorder. This article reviews the major scientific and clinical bases for initiating the MTA. METHOD: A selective review of the literature is presented in the service of describing the estimated prevalence of ADHD among children and adolescents, its core clinical features, evidence concerning psychopharmacological and psychosocial treatment effects, and related research issues and trends leading to the development of the MTA. RESULTS: Despite decades of treatment research and clinical practice, there is an insufficient basis for answering the following manifold question: under what circumstances and with what child characteristics (comorbid conditions, gender, family history, home environment, age, nutritional/metabolic status, etc.) do which treatments or combinations of treatment (stimulants, behavior therapy, parent training, school-based intervention) have what impacts (improvement, stasis, deterioration) on what domains of child functioning (cognitive, academic, behavioral, neurophysiological, neuropsychological, peer relations, family relations), for how long (short versus long term), to what extent (effect sizes, normal versus pathological range), and why (processes underlying change)? CONCLUSIONS: The important scientific, clinical, and public health issues nested within this manifold question provide both the impetus and scaffolding for the MTA.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Neurological sequelae of the operation "baby lift" airplane disaster.

The aircraft disaster of the first flight of Operation "Baby Lift", which departed from Saigon, Vietnam, April 4, 1975, was survived by 149 orphaned children on their way to adoptive homes in the West. It had 157 passenger fatalities. The aircraft disaster exposed the surviving children to a complex disaster environment in which subatmospheric decompression, hypoxia, and deceleration were experienced, many children suffered a transient unconsciousness. We examined 135 surviving children between 1978 and 1985. The U.S. resident children were examined in the years 1979 to 1982 at an average age of 8 years and 6 months. They displayed the following symptomatology: attention deficit (> 75%), hyperactivity (> 65%), impulse disorder (> 55%), learning disabilities (> 35%), speech and language pathology (> 70%), and soft neurological signs (> 75%). The European children were examined in the years 1983 to 1985. On arrival at the adoptive home, 2 weeks after the accident they displayed the following symptomatology: muscle hypotonia (26%), seizures (2.5%), and regressed developmental milestones (33%). At the time of the diagnostic evaluations (1983 to 1985) the average age was 11 years and 8 months. They displayed the following symptomatology: attention deficit (59%), hyperactivity (52%), impulse disorder (48%), learning disabilities (43%), soft neurological signs (43%), epilepsy (16%), and speech and language pathology (34%). We conclude that a complex disaster environment can cause brain damage in children without prolonged unconsciousness, and that victims of disasters require a thorough evaluation from a multidisciplinary team.

Accidents, Aviation↗
PubMed1991

Complete evaluation of the child identified as a poor listener.

With increasing awareness among educators of the importance of early identification of hearing impairment, growing numbers of children are being referred for evaluation when a teacher or day care supervisor perceives that a child is having difficulty listening. Some children who manifest difficulty listening in a pre-school play group or the classroom may have conductive or sensorineural hearing loss, while others have normal hearing with an underlying and yet-to-be-detected behavioral or psychoeducational disorder. This report presents suggestions for evaluation of the child referred for difficulty listening. The otologist should consider that a child may have an attention deficit disorder when results of initial audiologic assessment indicate there is no hearing loss or when the degree of hearing loss appears to be small in relation to the degree of inattentiveness that has been observed. The features of Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Specific Developmental Disorder (SDD) are described, and illustrative case studies are presented. Clues to diagnosis are provided and a distinction between overlapping disorders is made.

Attention↗
PubMed1991

National survey of problems and competencies among four- to sixteen-year-olds: parents' reports for normative and clinical samples.

We compared parent-reported problems and competencies for national samples of 2,600 4-16-year-olds assessed at intake into mental health services and 2,600 demographically matched nonreferred children assessed in a home interview survey. Parents responded to the ACQ Behavior Checklist, which includes 23 competence items, three competence scales, 216 problem items, eight syndrome scales, Internalizing, Externalizing, and total competence and problem scores. Most items and scales discriminated significantly (p less than .01) between referred and nonreferred samples. There were important sex and age differences in problem patterns, but regional and ethnic differences were minimal. Somewhat more problems and fewer competencies were reported for lower- than upper-socioeconomic-status children. Referral rates were similar in the most urban and rural areas, but they were significantly higher in areas of intermediate urbanization. Correlations of problem scores with those obtained 10 years earlier in a regional survey and with surveys in other countries showed considerable consistency in the rank order of prevalence rates among specific problems. Apparently owing to its more differentiated response scales, the ACQ was susceptible to respondent characteristics that reduced its discriminative power below that of the Child Behavior Checklist. Comparisons of procedures for discriminating between the normal and the clinical range supported the value of a borderline category for children who are neither clearly normal nor clearly deviant. Interview data from the survey sample yielded significantly higher ACQ problem scores for children who had fewer related adults in their homes, those who had more unrelated adults in their homes, those whose biological parents were unmarried, separated, or divorced, those whose families received public assistance, and those whose household or family members had received mental health services. Children who scored higher on Externalizing than Internalizing problems tended to have unmarried, separated, or divorced parents and to come from families receiving public assistance. However, among children whose household or family members had received mental health services, there were greater proportions of both Externalizing and Internalizing patterns than among other children.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Replication of empirically derived syndromes as a basis for taxonomy of child/adolescent psychopathology.

To advance the empirical identification of child/adolescent syndromes, principal components analyses were performed on four sets of parents' ratings of 8,194 6- to 16-year-olds referred to American and Dutch mental health services. The following syndromes replicated well for both sexes at ages 6-16: Aggressive, Anxious/Depressed, Attention Problems, Delinquent, Somatic Complaints, and Withdrawn. For both age ranges, a syndrome designated as Socially Inept replicated well among boys, and one designated as Mean replicated well among girls. Evidence was also found for a Schizoid syndrome in all sex/age groups and a Sex Problems syndrome among girls at ages 6-11. Syndrome scores discriminated well between nationwide normative and clinical samples. The replicated syndromes contribute to the empirical basis for a taxonomy of the kinds of disorders commonly seen between the ages of 6 and 16.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Disturbances of brain maturation and neurodevelopment during chronic renal failure in infancy.

Fifteen infants with moderate to severe congenital renal disease were prospectively studied by serial renal, neurodevelopmental, neurophysiologic, and anthropometric assessments. The observation period ranged from 3 to 25 months (mean = 10.9). Eight patients maintained a Mental Development Index (MDI) above the 16th percentile (greater than -1 SD) and comprised group 1. Of the remaining seven patients (group 2), three had an MDI less than 16th percentile when first studied and four had serial decreases of the MDI to less than 16th percentile. Although motor development was more delayed in group 2 at study entry, there were no significant changes of motor performance levels for either group during the study period. Group 2 patients had smaller length (p less than 0.05) and head circumference (p less than 0.05) standard deviation scores in comparison with group 1, and they had higher serum creatinine values (mean = 3.8 vs 1.3 mg/dl, respectively; p less than 0.01). By spectral electroencephalography, the expected progressive increase of the frequency of cerebral cortical background activity with age was demonstrated in group 1 but was not seen in group 2 (multivariate analysis of variance p less than 0.03). This increase of faster-frequency activity was primarily manifested in the left cerebral hemisphere of group 1 patients (p less than 0.01), a finding that was also absent in group 2. The frequent occurrence of neurodevelopmental abnormalities in infants with renal failure is possibly a consequence of impaired dominant hemispheric maturation in the first several years of life, which is clinically manifested as deterioration of cognitive function.

Cephalometry↗
PubMed1989

The independence of hyperactivity from conduct disorder: methodological considerations.

It has been claimed that the childhood behavioural factors "hyperactivity" and "conduct disorder" are highly correlated. The fact that hyperactive symptoms load heavily on the conduct disorder factor has also been used to support the notion that hyperactivity is not an independent behavioural dimension. The present study employs a large sample of combined clinic and normal children to demonstrate that both of these observations are artifacts of methodological technique. When factor score coefficients are used to interpret factors, the hyperactive symptoms do not load on the conduct disorder factor. If factor scores are defined by the use of unit weights, as in previous studies, then the intercorrelation between the hyperactive and conduct disorder factors is high. The use of factor score coefficients to define factors, on the other hand, produces uncorrelated factors. The results support the idea that hyperactivity and conduct disorder are independent behavioural dimensions.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Piracetam and dyslexia: effects on reading tests.

Previous research has suggested that dyslexics treated with piracetam have shown improvements in reading skills, verbal memory and verbal conceptualizing ability, feature analysis, and processing of letter-like stimuli. Two hundred twenty-five dyslexic children between the ages of 7 years 6 months and 12 years 11 months whose reading skills were significantly below their intellectual capacity were enrolled in a multicenter, 36-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Children of below average intelligence, with abnormal findings on audiologic, ophthalmologic, neurologic, psychiatric, and physical examinations, who were emotionally disturbed or educationally deprived and who had recently been treated with psychoactive medication were excluded from the trial. Piracetam was well tolerated, with no serious adverse clinical or laboratory effects reported. Piracetam-treated children showed significant improvements in reading ability (Gray Oral Reading Test) and reading comprehension (Gilmore Oral Reading Test). Treatment effects were evident after 12 weeks and were sustained for the total period (36 weeks).

Child↗
PubMed1986

Piracetam and event-related potentials in dyslexic males.

The effect of piracetam on visual event-related potentials (ERP) was investigated in a double-blind placebo-controlled study. Eight- to 12-year-old dyslexic males were randomly assigned to 3.3 g/day of piracetam or matching placebo in two divided doses over a 12-week period. Children performed a vigilance task in which they pressed a key when two alphabetic letters or shapes occurred in sequence. ERPs to letters and shapes, for active and passive responses, were recorded at the vertex and left and right parietal areas of the scalp. Performance measures included letter- and form-hits, misses, commission errors and reaction times. Piracetam increased the amplitude of a late positive component (believed to correspond to P300) at the vertex for letter-hits. Piracetam also increased the latency of this component in both hemispheres, but only for active responses (letter-hits) in the left hemisphere and passive responses (correct rejections and misses) in the right hemisphere. Although piracetam did not significantly affect performance, reaction time to letter-hits was significantly correlated with the latency of the P300 component, suggesting that letters created increased effort or attentional demand on the subjects compared with forms. An early ERP component (P225) also showed increased amplitude to piracetam in both hemispheres and effects were limited to form-hits. These effects were thought to possibly reflect slow negative potentials arising from stimulus anticipation in the CNV-like paradigm. In view of the small sample size, the results were cautiously interpreted as indicating a facilitation of verbal processing mechanisms responsible for analyzing the verbal significance of visual stimuli.

Brain↗
PubMed1986

Nutrient-behavior research with children: methods, considerations, and evaluation.

Diet-behavior research with children formerly focused on effects of diet regimens, as with additive-free diets for hyperactivity. However, an important new area of investigation includes studies of the immediate effects of individual nutrients, such as sugar, on the behavior and cognition of children. Studies of this type use methods from a variety of disciplines. Competence in the fields of nutrition, behavior, neurochemistry, and metabolism is required to perform the studies. Important components of nutrient-behavior studies include the study hypothesis and subject description (including recruitment and selection). Aspects of the food challenge to consider are challenge formulation, dosage, carrier, background dietary variables, and challenge administration schedule. Dependent measures that are used frequently in the studies include observations of behavior, rating scales, activity monitoring, biochemical measures, laboratory tests of performance and attention, tests of cognitive function, and measures of mood. Familiarity with each of the components and use of specific evaluation guidelines will enable nutrition professionals to critically evaluate the studies.

Body Weight↗
PubMed1985

The effects of piracetam in children with dyslexia.

Following previous research which suggests that piracetam improves performance on tasks associated with the left hemisphere, a 12-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of developmental dyslexics was conducted. Six study sites treated 257 dyslexic boys between the ages of 8 and 13 years who were significantly below their potential in reading performance. Children were of at least normal intelligence, had normal findings on audiologic, ophthalmologic, neurologic, and physical examination, and were neither educationally deprived nor emotionally disturbed. Piracetam was found to be well tolerated in this study population. Children treated with piracetam showed improvements in reading speed. No other effects on reading were observed. In addition, improvement in auditory sequential short-term memory was observed in those piracetam-treated patients who showed relatively poor memory at baseline. It is suggested that longer term treatment with piracetam may result in additional improvements.

Adolescent↗