Neuropsychological test performance and the attention deficit disorders: clinical utility of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision.

The Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision (LNNB-CR) was administered to 54 clinic-referred children aged 8-12 years. Children reliably diagnosed as attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity were compared with children diagnosed as attention deficit disorder without hyperactivity and with a clinic control group diagnosed with internalizing disorders. Both attention deficit disorder groups were lower than the control group in verbal and Full Scale IQ scores but did not differ from one another. The groups did not differ significantly on any of the LNNB-CR clinical scales, on the right or left hemisphere scores, or on the pathognomonic score using analyses of variance or analyses of covariance with both Full Scale IQ and age as covariates. These findings failed to support the hypothesis that attention deficit disorder, either with or without hyperactivity, is associated with neuropsychological dysfunction as measured by the LNNB-CR.