Event-related potentials in adolescents with combined ADHD and CD disorder: a single stimulus paradigm

Some studies of the event-related potentials demonstrated a reduction of the voluntary component P3 (P300 or P3b) in youngsters with the attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or in conduct disorders (CD), and a reduction of the automatic processing component, mismatch negativity, in patients with both ADHD and CD (ADHD+CD). Recently, a passive auditory P3 potential has been elicited by a single stimulus. We therefore tried this potential study in 20 healthy subjects and 20 teenagers with ADHD+CD to search for further evidence of the altered automatic cerebral processing in the latter. Subjects also answered a self-report Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology (DAPP). The patient group scored significantly higher on most DAPP traits that reflect problems of emotion control, showed significantly prolonged P2, N2, and P3, and reduced P3. In all subjects Stimulus Seeking was positively correlated with P3 latencies at Fz, Cz, and Pz, and with P3 amplitude at Cz. This study suggests that youngsters with ADHD+CD had pronounced emotion dysregulation, and prominent deficit in passive attention, as reflected by the automatic processing of auditory stimuli.