Predicting stimulant effectiveness in hyperactive children with a repeatable neuropsychological battery: A preliminary study

• 1.

  1. A double blind assessment of change on neuropsychological tests was used to determine whether psychostimulant medication would improve a particular hyperactive child's performance on tasks requiring attention and learning.

• 2.

  2. Thirteen hyperactive children were tested on a repeatable battery of cognitive-perceptual-motor tasks under each of three conditions: low dose of dextroamphetamine sulfate; high dose; placebo.

• 3.

  3. A ranking system was used to determine the comparative efficacy of doses in terms of overall performance on the battery. Results showed that d-amphetamine was more effective than placebo for 11 of the 13 children.

• 4.

  4. The advantages of the assessment method for the physician, in terms of titrating doses quickly and in continuing to monitor dose effectiveness in long-term follow-up, were discussed.