21 January 2009

Children with ADHD 'have serious short-term memory problems'

Children with the common disorder Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have serious problems with short-term memory- which may explain the poor attention and learning these children frequently show, according to research led by academics from the Universities of Strathclyde and Dundee.

The study found that there were marked differences in the ability to be able to hold and use information in short-term memory between children with ADHD and those without the disorder.

Significantly, the research included only children with ADHD who had not been previously treated with any medication. This showed that short-term memory difficulties are part of the disorder and not caused by the medications used to treat the ADHD symptoms, such as methylphenidate, also known as Ritalin.

The study was run by Dr Sinead Rhodes, a Psychology lecturer at Strathclyde, and Dr Sarah Seth and Dr David Coghill from Dundee. It was funded by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council.

Dr Rhodes, who specialises in the development and function of memory, said: 'Most of the research in this area has included children who have already been treated with medication, making it impossible to identify if earlier treatment has led to the observed memory difficulties the child shows.'

'The children completed a number of computer-based memory puzzles, most of which were similar to computer games, to help them remain engaged during the memory assessment. Children with ADHD still showed difficulties on a number of the memory puzzles included, despite often commenting that they enjoyed doing the puzzles.'

The researchers concluded that children with ADHD have difficulties in holding and using information in their short term memory, which may explain why they frequently forget things and appear disorganised. These difficulties would impact significantly on their ability to learn.

Dr Coghill, an international authority on ADHD, said: 'These results confirm and build on our previous studies and clearly demonstrate that many children with ADHD have very poor short term memories. This helps explain some of the difficulties that they have in the classroom.'

'They will find it much harder to remember what has been taught unless they are given prompts, such as lesson notes, to help them. Notably, our previous studies strongly suggested that methylphenidate can help with these memory problems.'

Notes to editors:

1. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK's largest funding agency for research, data resources and postgraduate training relating to social and economic issues. It supports independent, high quality research which impacts on business, the public sector and the third sector. The ESRC's planned total expenditure in 2008/09 is £203 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and research policy institutes. More at ww.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk.

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