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Is brain arousal regulation a predictor of response to psychostimulant therapy in adult ADHD patients?

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Abstract

We investigated whether baseline brain arousal instability during resting state EEG, using the Vigilance Algorithm Leipzig (VIGALL 2.1), can predict response to methylphenidate therapy in adult ADHD patients. An arousal stability score of the EEGs of 28 adult ADHD patients was calculated quantifying the extent of arousal decline. In logistic regression analysis, arousal stability score predicted response to MPH [odds ratio 1.28 (95% CI 1.0–1.65); p = 0.027]. In this pilot study, we demonstrated that arousal stability at baseline predicted methylphenidate treatment response, indicating that less stable arousal regulation during a 15-min EEG at rest increases the chance of treatment response.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Petra Pfaff-Ott for technical assistance and all patients for participating in this study.

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Author notes

  1. Maria Strauß and Andreas Reif contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Maria Strauß, Christine Ulke, Madlen Paucke, Christian Sander & Ulrich Hegerl

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine, University Hospital, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany

    Andreas Reif, Ulrich Hegerl, Heike Weber, Juliane Kopf & Sarah Kittel-Schneider

  3. Depression Research Centre, German Depression Foundation, Leipzig, Germany

    Christian Sander & Ulrich Hegerl

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine, University Hospital, University of Würzburg, Margarete-Höppel-Platz 1, 97080, Würzburg, Germany

    Heike Weber, Julia Heupel & Sarah Kittel-Schneider

Authors
  1. Maria Strauß
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  2. Andreas Reif
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  3. Christine Ulke
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  4. Madlen Paucke
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  5. Christian Sander
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  6. Ulrich Hegerl
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  7. Heike Weber
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  8. Julia Heupel
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  9. Juliane Kopf
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  10. Sarah Kittel-Schneider
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarah Kittel-Schneider.

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Conflict of interest

MS is a speaker for Lilly, Medice Arzneimittel and Servier. MP reports grants from Novartis Pharma GmbH, Germany and personal fees from Medice outside the submitted work. UH was an advisory board member for Lilly, Lundbeck, Servier, Takeda and Otsuka; a consultant for Bayer and Nycomed; and a speaker for Bristol-Myers Squibb, Medice Arzneimittel, Novartis, and Roche. AR has received speaker’s honoraria from Medice, Takeda, Servier, Janssen, and neuraxpharm as well as grant support from Medice. SKS has received author’s and speaker’s honoraria as well as travel costs from Medice Arzneimittel and Takeda. CU, HW and JK have no conflict of interest to declare. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Strauß, M., Reif, A., Ulke, C. et al. Is brain arousal regulation a predictor of response to psychostimulant therapy in adult ADHD patients?. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 270, 1073–1076 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-019-01085-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-019-01085-y

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