[Reliability of attention and verbal memory tests with normal children and adolescents--clinical implications].
OBJECTIVE
Neurological assessment is an intriguing tool for the characterisation of cognitive dysfunctions associated with childhood psychiatric disorders. The current article gives a short theoretical overview on neuropsychological functions such as attention and verbal memory. Selected clinical findings are summarised. Neuropsychological attention and memory tasks that are suited for the examination of children and adolescents are described.


METHODS
The retest-reliability of these tasks was examined in a group of 33 healthy children within six weeks after the original test.


RESULTS
It was shown that reliability was generally high, albeit differing between some of the dependent variables. The greatest learning effects were found in younger children.


CONCLUSIONS
The selected neuropsychological tests seem suitable for clinical applications such as the assessment of cognitive deficits or the evaluation of psychopharmacological treatment. However, age-dependent confidence intervals should be considered if retesting is required.
Günther
Thomas
T
Klinik für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie und -psychotherapie, Universitätsklinikum Aachen. thomas.guenther2@post.rwth-aachen.de
Herpertz-Dahlmann
Beate
B
Konrad
Kerstin
K
D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D011939:Mental Recall; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011930:Reaction Time; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014706:Verbal Learning