Yoga,Mindfulness, and Meditation Interventions for Youth with ADHD: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a chronic developmental disorder affecting 3–7% of children. In light of the growing utilization of yoga, mindfulness, and meditation in ADHD populations and potential benefits it has on ADHD symptoms, executive function deficits, and social functioning, we sought to evaluate these interventions for youth with ADHD. The primary aim of this review paper is to identify the efficacy of these programs for the treatment of youth with ADHD through a systematic review and meta-analysis. A systematic literature search was conducted in the following electronic databases: PsychINFO, ERIC, PubMed, and MEDLINE. Studies were included in the meta-analytic review if participants were between 5–17 years old, had a diagnosis of ADHD or met symptom threshold on psychometrically-validated measure of ADHD symptoms, was a treatment outcome study, and was published in a peer-reviewed English-language journal. The effect sizes of eleven studies demonstrate that yoga, mindfulness-based interventions, and/or meditation had a statistically significant effect on the outcomes of ADHD symptoms, hyperactivity, and inattention (parent and teacher report), as well as parent-child relationship, executive functioning, on-task behavior, parent stress, and parent trait-mindfulness (p?<?0.05). The effect sizes range from small to large effects across these outcomes. Considerable risk for bias was found across studies. Given significant methodological limitations of the literature, positive effect sizes found in studies should be interpreted with caution; these interventions should not be considered first-line interventions for ADHD. However, preliminary findings suggest yoga, mindfulness, and meditation may be beneficial for youth with ADHD, but extensive research is required to validate the efficacy of these interventions.     

Neural and behavioral effects of interference resolution in depression and rumination

Individuals diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) often ruminate about their depression and their life situations, impairing their concentration and performance on daily tasks. We examined whether rumination might be due to a deficit in the ability to expel negative information from short-term memory (STM), and fMRI was used to examine the neural structures involved in this ability. MDD and healthy control (HC) participants were tested using a directed-forgetting procedure in a short-term item recognition task. As predicted, MDD participants had more difficulty than did HCs in expelling negative, but not positive, words from STM. Overall, the neural networks involved in directed forgetting were similar for both groups, but the MDDs exhibited more spatial variability in activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (a region critical for inhibiting irrelevant information), which may contribute to their relative inability to inhibit negative information.     

A survey of habit behaviors exhibited by individuals with mental retardation

The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence and characteristics of habit behaviors exhibited by individuals with mental retardation living in the community. Two hundred and fifty-nine direct care staff and parents from the upper mid-west and northeast regions of the country completed a survey measuring the prevalence of major habit disorders (bruxism, trichotillomania, motor/vocal tics, and stuttering) and habit behaviors exhibited by individuals with mental retardation being served by community residential agencies. Habit disorders were also subjectively evaluated according to the respondents' perception of the severity and noticeability of the behavior, and naturalness of appearance of the individual. In addition, respondents indicated their usual reaction to the habit disorder. Overall, stuttering was found to be the most prevalent habit disorder (32%), followed by tics (16·6%), bruxism (13·1%), and trichotillomania (5%) for the sample surveyed. Furthermore, differences were found in the prevalence of habit disorders and other habit behaviors by level of mental retardation and age (adults versus children/adolescents). The implications and limitations of the data, as well as suggestions for future investigations of habit disorders and habit behaviors exhibited by individuals with mental retardation, are discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Creativity and Ethics: The Relationship of Creative and Ethical Problem-Solving

Students of creativity have long been interested in the relationship between creativity and deviant behaviors such as criminality, mental disease, and unethical behavior. In this study we wished to examine the relationship between creative thinking skills and ethical decision-making among scientists. Accordingly, 258 doctoral students in the health, biological, and social sciences were asked to complete a measure of creative processing skills (e.g., problem definition, conceptual combination, idea generation) and a measure of ethical decision-making examining four domains: data management, study conduct, professional practices, and business practices. It was found that ethical decision-making in all four of these areas was related to creative problem-solving processes with late-cycle processes (e.g., idea generation and solution monitoring) proving particularly important. The implications of these findings for understanding the relationship between creative and deviant thought are discussed.