Aberrant executive attention in unaffected youth at familial risk for mood disorders

作者：Belleau Emily L; Phillips Mary L; Birmaher Boris; Axelson David A; Ladouceur Cecile D^*

来源：Journal of Affective Disorders, 2013, 147(1-3): 397-400.

DOI：10.1016/j.jad.2012.08.020

• Mood disorders
• Attention
• Endophenotype
• Executive attention
• Sustained attention

Background: Aberrant attentional processes in individuals with mood disorders - bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) - have been well documented. This study examined whether unaffected youth at familial risk for mood disorders would exhibit poor alerting, orienting, and executive attention relative to age-matched controls. %26lt;br%26gt;Methods: A sample of youth (8-17 years old) having one parent with either BD or MDD (Mood-Risk, n=29) and youth having healthy parents (HC, n=27) completed the Attention Network Test-Short version (ANT-S), which assesses alerting, orienting, and executive attention. %26lt;br%26gt;Results: Relative to HCs, the Mood-Risk group had significantly slower reaction times on an index of executive attention, but no differences on indices of alerting or orienting. There were no differences between the two at-risk groups (i.e., youth with BD parent vs. youth with MDD parent) on any ANT-S measure. %26lt;br%26gt;Limitations: The current study is limited by its cross-sectional design, small sample size, and failure to control for familial environmental factors. %26lt;br%26gt;Conclusions: The findings extend previous results indicating that altered executive attention may represent an endophenotype for mood disorders in at-risk youth.

• 出版日期2013-5