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Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of six months of treatment with long acting methylphenidate (concerta) on neuropsychological functions such as intelligence, selective attention, attention set shifting, resistance to interference, speed of information processing and multimodal short term memory, and the response to treatment. Material and Methods: The study consisted of 20 boys aged 6 to 12 years, who were refered to our outpatient clinic and had a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Paricipants were given the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Childen-Revised (WISC-R) and a neuropsychological battery that consisted of Stroop Test TBAG Form (STP) and Visual auditory Digit Span-B (VADS-B) before and sixth months after methylphenidate treatment. Differences between test scores obtained from neuropsychological assesment before and after sixth months of teatment were analyzed by the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. Results: Methylphenidate treatment had a significant effect on performance intelligence scores of WISC-R; additionally this treatment affected significantly the majority of STP and VADS-B scores. The performance on all tests increased after methylphenidate treatment. Conclusion: The results of our study showed that methylphenidate treatment had positive effects on the scores representing intelligence and different types of attention. Future studies on larger study groups would cast furher light on the effects of methylphenidate treatment on cognitive processes including intelligence and a wide range of neuropsychological processes. © 2013 by Türkiye Klinikleri. |
