NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL AND COGNITIVE-FUNCTIONING IN CHILDREN WITH ANXIETY, EXTERNALIZING, AND COMORBID PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

Compared neuropsychological and cognitive functioning of 305 children (mean age = 8 years) classified in to four groups based on self-reports and teacher reports of psychopathological symptomatology: (a) no-problem controls (Group 0), (b) anxious/somatic only (Group A), (c) externalizing only (Group E), and (d) comorbid symptomatology (Group AE). Compared to controls, all three problem groups showed significant deficits in intellectual functioning and academic achievement. Findings suggested that Group A children may experience interference with specific aspects of tertiary processing in the temporal-parietal areas, whereas right-hemispheric processing appears to be more problematic than left-hemispheric processing for Group E. Group AE demonstrated dysfunction that was severe and global in nature. Deficits in executive functions were found in all three problem groups, suggesting that frontal-lobe dysfunction may be related to psychopathology in general, rather than to any specific type of psychopathology. Finally, 73% of the children could be correctly classified for presence or absence of psychopathology based on measures of estimated IQ, academic achievement, nonverbal concept formation, and executive functioning. Classification was correct for 64% of the cases within specific type of psychopathology.