Attentional Control Training for Infants at Risk of ADHD (ACTI-ADHD)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Attentional Control Training for Infants at risk of ADHD: a feasibility study
IRAS ID
149062
Contact name
Patrick Bolton
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Research summary
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neuropsychiatric developmental disorder characterized by distractibility, hyperactivity and impulsive behaviour (A.P.A., 2000) and it is one of the most common psychiatric disorders in childhood (A.P.A., 2000). Studies have reported an elevated prevalence of ADHD among family members of people with ADHD (Faraone et al., 1997 & 2001). Most family studies have identified a two to eightfold increase in risk of ADHD in parents and siblings of children with ADHD (Faraone et al., 1992 & 2001; Freitag & Retz, 2010). Therefore, it is important to target infants with familial risk of ADHD in order to develop early effective treatment to prevent future impaired outcomes.
The current research aims to explore the feasibility and suitability of the ACTI-ADHD study that involves home-based attentional control training for infants at risk of ADHD aged 8 to 24 months. We will measure acceptability and feasibility of procedures for recruitment, measurement, retention and for the training procedures. This study will provide important outcomes for conducting a larger randomized control trial in infants at risk of ADHD for future research.
Twenty infants at risk of ADHD will be recruited and they will be trained at home using an attentional control training programme (Wass et al., 2011). Participants will attend the Babylab at the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development (CBCD) at Birkbeck College for a pre-training assessment in which behavioural and neurophysiological measures will be collected. Following this assessment, participants will receive between 2 and 12 home-based training sessions over the next 2 to 3 months. Number of training sessions received will be determined by study needs and family wishes. After completing the training period, participants will be asked to attend a final post-training assessment at the Babylab and the same behavioural and neurophysiological tasks will be carried out as in the pre-training assessment.
REC name
London - Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/LO/0821
Date of REC Opinion
24 Jul 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion