[Evaluation of sympathetic skin response in patients with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder presenting with...

We studied sympathetic skin response (SSR) to visual emotional stimuli in two children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) and nine healthy controls, and correlated them with comorbid disorders. They were diagnosed as having conduct disorder at administration. Two years after interventions of medical care, counseling and education, they were improving in behavior, one with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and another without ODD at this study. SSR were evoked in the patient without ODD (a 10-year-old boy), but not in the patient with ODD (a 12-year-old boy). These findings indicate failure of a patient with both AD/HD and ODD to respond autonomically to social stimuli, and suggest association between emotional signal and empathy.