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Methylphenidate and emotional-motivational processing in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

  • Psychiatry and Preclinical Psychiatric Studies - Original Article
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Abstract

In line with the assumption that emotional–motivational deficits are one core dysfunction in ADHD, in one of our previous studies we observed a reduced reactivity towards pleasant pictures in adult ADHD patients as compared to controls. This was indicated by a lack of attenuation of the startle reflex specifically during pleasant pictures in ADHD patients. The first choice medical agents in ADHD, methylphenidate (MPH), is discussed to normalize these dysfunctions. However, experimental evidence in the sense of double-blind placebo-controlled study designs is lacking. Therefore, we investigated 61 adult ADHD patients twice, one time with placebo and one time with MPH with the same experimental design as in our study previously and assessed emotion processing during the presentation of pleasant, neutral and unpleasant pictures. We obtained startle reflex data as well as valence and arousal ratings in association with the pictures. As previously shown, ADHD patients showed a diminished startle attenuation during pleasant pictures while startle potentiation during unpleasant pictures was normal. Valence and arousal ratings unsuspiciously increased with increasing pleasantness and arousal of the pictures, respectively. There were no significant influences of MPH. The study replicates that ADHD patients show a reduced reactivity towards pleasant stimuli. MPH did not normalize this dysfunction. Possibly, MPH only influences emotions during more complex behavioural tasks that involve executive functions in adults with ADHD. Our results emphasize the importance for the use of double-blind placebo-controlled designs in psychopharmacological research.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG; KFO 125/1 and 125/2, project 7). We thank Maren Deberle and David Wenzel for their help with data acquisition and preprocessing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy, University of Würzburg, Marcusstr. 9-11, 97070, Würzburg, Germany

    Annette Conzelmann, Eva Woidich, Ronald F. Mucha, Peter Weyers, Mathias Müller & Paul Pauli

  2. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Annette Conzelmann

  3. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

    Klaus-Peter Lesch & Christian P. Jacob

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  1. Annette Conzelmann
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  2. Eva Woidich
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Correspondence to Annette Conzelmann or Paul Pauli.

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All procedures performed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Appendix

Appendix

The following were the 72 pictures by the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) number separated for females and males. Women: 7820, 6160, 2120, 5460, 9920, 3170, 7010, 7200, 1811, 7190, 4660, 2057, 7020, 3150, 7050, 2205, 9520, 7175, 2221, 4680, 8370, 7000, 7205, 8030, 5830, 9700, 4640, 4641, 1270, 5533, 6550, 7270, 4510, 7004, 7237, 6312, 5621, 6530, 6241, 9250, 5629, 7950, 9160, 3062, 2750, 8490, 1090, 2691, 4613, 8180, 1590, 2720, 2200, 7185; Filler Pictures: 9910, 7182, 7160, 5480, 3080, 7283, 9620, 7002, 5660, 1540, 4572, 8034, 7031, 9008, 6360, 9440, 2480, 8496. Men: 7820, 6160, 2120, 5460, 9920, 3170, 7010, 7200, 1811, 7190, 4660, 2057, 7020, 3150, 7050, 2205, 9520, 7175, 2221, 4680, 8370, 7000, 7205, 8030, 5830, 9700, 4650, 4607, 1274, 5534, 3530, 7330, 4290, 7080, 7187, 6370, 8080, 3010, 6230, 3140, 5260, 7110, 9410, 3000, 4180, 2053, 6150, 3103, 7180, 5700, 7550, 8510, 7130, 9040; Filler Pictures: 9910, 7182, 7160, 5480, 3080, 7283, 9620, 7002, 5982, 1460, 4420, 8380, 7090, 9007, 9433, 9810, 4310, 5740.

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Conzelmann, A., Woidich, E., Mucha, R.F. et al. Methylphenidate and emotional-motivational processing in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. J Neural Transm 123, 971–979 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-016-1512-y

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