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Fine motor ability and psychiatric disorders in youth

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Abstract

Impaired fine motor ability has been linked to several domains of psychopathology. However, studies validating the specificity of this association among several categorical psychiatric disorders are still needed. The aim of this study was to assess differences in fine motor ability performance among four non-overlapping groups of psychiatric disorders and a group of typical developing comparisons (TDC). Our sample consisted of 2035 subjects aged 6–14-year-old. Diagnoses of psychiatric disorders were performed with the Development and Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA). Five non-overlapping groups without comorbidity were formed: phobic disorders (n = 101), distress disorders (n = 82), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (n = 133), oppositional defiant disorder/conduct disorder (ODD/CD) (n = 52) and one group of typical developing comparisons (TDC) (n = 1667). Fine motor ability was evaluated by three tasks: sequential finger–thumb opposition, Oseretsky, and pronation/supination tests. Each task was assessed by total time to perform the movement and levels of accuracy, fluency, symmetry, precision, and coordination. We found that, when compared to TDC, the ADHD group performed more poorly in total fine motor ability (mean difference = − 0.28; p = 0.014), time to complete the task (mean difference = 0.36; p < 0.001), accuracy (mean difference = − 0.30; p = 0.005), fluency (mean difference = − 0.26; p = 0.03), symmetry (mean difference − 0.25; p = 0.04), precision (mean difference = − 0.26; p = 0.026), and coordination (mean difference = − 0.25; p = 0.042). The ADHD group also took more time to complete the task than the ODD/CD group (mean difference = 0.45; p = 0.037). No other significant between-group differences were found. Additional analyses showed those differences were statistically significant for all ADHD dimensions. Our results suggest that children with ADHD present impairments in all aspects of fine motor abilities compared to TDC, a difference not found in other psychiatric disorders.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported with Grants from the National Institute of Developmental Psychiatry for Children and Adolescent (INPD) (Grants: CNPq 465550/2014-2 and FAPESP 2014/50917-0) and Foundation for Research Support of the State of Rio Grande do Sul (FAPERGS).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil

    Lorenna Sena Teixeira Mendes, Gisele Gus Manfro, Luis Augusto Rohde & Giovanni Abrahão Salum

  2. National Institute of Developmental Psychiatry for Children and Adolescents, Porto Alegre, Brazil

    Gisele Gus Manfro, Ary Gadelha, Pedro Mario Pan, Rodrigo Affonseca Bressan, Luis Augusto Rohde & Giovanni Abrahão Salum

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Ary Gadelha, Pedro Mario Pan & Rodrigo Affonseca Bressan

  4. Laboratório de Neurociências Clínicas, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Ary Gadelha, Pedro Mario Pan & Rodrigo Affonseca Bressan

  5. Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Ramiro Barcelos, 2350–room 2202, Porto Alegre, 90035-003, Brazil

    Lorenna Sena Teixeira Mendes

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  1. Lorenna Sena Teixeira Mendes
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Correspondence to Lorenna Sena Teixeira Mendes.

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Conflict of interest

LS.T Mendes received a scholarship from Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior CAPES- Brazil. P. Pan received a scholarship from CNPq (National Council for Technological and Scientific Development, Brazil). A. Gadelha received continuous medical education support from Astra Zeneca, Eli-Lilly and Janssen-Cilag. R. Bressan has received research grants from FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation), CNPq (National Council for Technological and Scientific Development, Brazil), AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Janssen, Lundbeck, and Roche and has served on advisory boards or as a speaker for Ache, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Janssen, Lundbeck, and Roche. L. A. Rohde was on the speakers’ bureau/advisory board and/or acted as consultant for Eli-Lilly, JanssenCilag, Novartis and Shire in the past 3 years. The ADHD and Juvenile Bipolar Disorder Outpatient Programs chaired by L. A. Rohde received unrestricted educational and research support from the following pharmaceutical companies in the past 3 years: Eli-Lilly, Janssen-Cilag, Novartis and Shire. He receives authorship royalties from Oxford Press and ArtMed. He has also received travel awards for taking part in the 2014 APA meeting from Shire. The other authors declare no conflict of interest.

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The authors declare all ethical standard procedures were observed and the study was approved by the ethics committee of the University of São Paulo.

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Mendes, L.S.T., Manfro, G.G., Gadelha, A. et al. Fine motor ability and psychiatric disorders in youth. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 27, 605–613 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-017-1091-y

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