Evaluation of emotion recognition and social cognition abilities in attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder patients

Objective: Previous studies often show Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) comorbidity in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), however, current studies state that there could be undefined autistic features in children with ADHD. Deficits in social functioning, emotion recognition and social cognitive abilities are the core symptoms of ASD. In ADHD, there happens to be difficulties in social functioning areas, besides deficits in number of daily life activities such as cognitive, academic, familial and vocational functions. In this study, we aimed to compare emotion recognition and social cognition abilities between ADHD patients and normal controls.

Method: 20 patients diagnosed with ADHD that were regularly examined at Ege University Faculty of Medicine, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Outpatient Clinic and 20 controls were included in the study. Comprehension Test, Faux Pau Test, Eyes Test and Faces Tests were performed. The statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 16.0 program.

Results: 80% (n=16) of the ADHD group were male and the 20% (n=4) were female. 5% (n=1) of the control group were male and the 95% (n=19) were female. Mean age of the ADHD patients was 11.95±1.50 and the controls was 13.75±1.37. The differences in Faces Test, Eyes Test, Faux Pau and Comprehension Test between the two groups were significant. It was statistically shown that the age and gender differences between the two groups did not affect test performances. There was also no significant difference on test performances between the 10 patients that were on medication and another 10 that were not. Both the group that was on medication and the other group that was not, performed worse than normal controls.

Conclusion: The findings indicate that the ADHD group has inability in emotion recognition and social cognition. We think that it is also important to pay attention to the deficits in social functioning and social cognition of ADHD patients through the treatment process. Studies with larger samples are suggested for investigating the factors related with the social cognitive deficits in ADHD and whether there is a social deficit or ASD- related ADHD subgroup or not.