Prediagnóstico rápido de TDAH en niños de edad escolar.
Un equipo multidisciplinar de científicos, del que forma parte un investigador de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, ha desarrollado una nueva metodología para el prediagnóstico rápido de una de las patologías más frecuentes en niños de edad escolar, el trastorno por déficit de atención e hiperactividad (TDAH).
A classification methodology based on an experimental study is proposed towards a fast pre-diagnosis of attention deficit. Our sample consisted of school-aged children between 8 and 12 years from Valencia, Spain. The study was based on the response time (RT) to visual stimuli in computerized tasks. The process of answering consecutive questions usually follows an ex-Gaussian distribution of the RTs. Specifically, we seek to propose a simple automatic classification scheme of children based on the most recent evidence of the relationship between RTs and ADHD. Specifically, the prevalence percentage and reported evidence for RTs in relation to ADHD or to attention deficit symptoms were taken as reference in our study. We explain step by step how to go from the computer-based experiments and through the data analysis. Our desired aim is to provide a methodology to determine quickly those children who behave differently from the mean child in terms of response times and thus are potential candidates to be diagnosed for ADHD or any another cognitive disorder related to attention deficit. This is highly desirable as there is an urgent need for objective instruments to diagnose attention deficit symptomatology. Most of the methodologies available nowadays lead to an overdiagnosis of ADHD and are not based on direct measurement but on interviews of people related to the child such as parents or teachers. Although the ultimate diagnosis must be made by a psychologist, the selection provided by a methodology like ours could allow them to focus on assessing a smaller number of candidates which would help save time and other resources.
Un equipo de investigadores formado por físicos, matemáticos y psicólogos de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), la Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) y la Universitat de València (UV), ha elaborado una metodología simple, rápida y automatizada dirigida a la identificación de niños con trastornos cognitivos y de atención en general. Para ello se han basado en datos de prevalencia mundiales y en las evidencias de correlación encontradas entre el tiempo de respuesta a estímulos visuales en tareas computarizadas y los trastornos cognitivos en general, y con el TDAH en particular. Aunque el diagnóstico final debe ser realizado por un psicólogo clínico o un psiquiatra, la selección proporcionada por esta metodología permitirá a estos especialistas enfocarse en evaluar un número menor de niños, lo que ayudaría a ahorrar tiempo y otros recursos.
