title: Emotion recognition in children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
abstract: Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are impaired in social adaptation and display deficits in social competence. Deficient emotion recognition has been discussed to underlie these social problems. However, comorbid conduct problems have not been considered in the majority of studies conducted so far, and the influence of medication on emotion recognition has rarely been studied. Here, emotion recognition performance was assessed in children with ADHD without medication compared with children with ADHD under stimulant medication and a matched control group. In order to rule out confounding by externalizing symptoms, children with comorbid conduct problems were excluded. Video clips with neutral faces developing a basic emotion (happiness, sadness, disgust, fear and anger) were presented in order to assess emotion recognition. Results indicated between-group differences neither concerning the number of correctly identified emotions nor concerning reaction times and their standard deviations. Thus, we suggest that ADHD per se is not associated with deficits in emotion recognition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Goethe-University, Frankfurt/M., Germany. christina.schwenck@kgu.de
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schwenck
authors.forename: Thekla
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Jutta
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schreckenbach
authors.forename: Yvonne
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zenglein
authors.forename: Angelika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gensthaler
authors.forename: Regina
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Taurines
authors.forename: Christine M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Freitag
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Romanos
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002648:Child; D004644:Emotions / Q000187:drug effects; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008774:Methylphenidate / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants; D008774:Methylphenidate