Differences in attention control between 'clinic-observable' and 'reported' hyperactivity: a preliminary report.

A series of attention tests were administered to two groups of hyperactive children and a control group of normal children. The first group of hyperactive children had both 'reported' hyperactivity (defined as having hyperactive behaviour reported at school and home) and 'clinic-observable' hyperactivity (defined as having hyperactive behaviour readily observable in a clinic interview). The second group had only 'reported' hyperactivity. The results of attention testing indicated that the children with both 'reported' and 'clinic-observable' hyperactivity had significant attentional difficulties in comparison with children with 'reported' hyperactivity as well as with the normal controls. On the other hand, the children with 'reported' hyperactivity had less evidence of attentional problems when compared to the normal children. Hence; the differentiation into 'reported' and 'clinic-observable' hyperactivity was of theoretical importance as clinic behaviour was a significant diagnostic marker in predicting performance in attention tests. The results of this study suggest the presence of different types of attention deficits in 'reported' and 'clinic-observable' hyperactivity respectively as well as heterogeneity in hyperactive children.