title: No clear effects of acute tryptophan depletion on processing affective prosody in male adults with ADHD.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have difficulties processing affective prosody, and research evidence demonstrates the importance of brain serotonin (5-HT) in the neurobiology of ADHD. This study aimed to investigate whether diminished brain 5-HT synthesis, as achieved by acute tryptophan depletion (ATD), can impair the processing of affective prosody in adults with ADHD.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty male patients with ADHD and twenty male healthy controls received ATD and a tryptophan-balanced control condition on separate days in a double-blind within-subject repeated measures crossover design. In both conditions, the Tübingen Affect Battery was administered in which subjects had to name the affective prosody of sentences with neutral, congruent, or incongruent semantic content.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants in the group of patients with ADHD perceived affective prosody less accurately than controls. Participants with ADHD showed compromised processing of sentences, committing more errors than healthy controls when identifying affect in instances of incongruent semantic content (P = 0.031). ATD did not contribute to this effect (all P > 0.5).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The difficulties male adults with ADHD have in accurately processing affective prosody may result from impairments in their ability to inhibit unwanted stimuli and impulses. No clear evidence implicates 5-HT as a cause of these impairments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Duisburg-Essen, LVR Clinics Essen, Essen, Germany. marco.grabemann@lvr.de
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grabemann
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mette
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zimmermann
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Heinrich
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Uekermann
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wiltfang
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abdel-Hamid
authors.forename: F D
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Zepf
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kis
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000378:metabolism; D018592:Cross-Over Studies; D004035:Diet Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011580:Psychological Techniques; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects; D012701:Serotonin / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D012737:Sex Factors; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014364:Tryptophan / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs; D012701:Serotonin; D014364:Tryptophan
keywords: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; inhibition; phonetics; serotonin