Objective: The current study compared empathy and theory of mind (ToM) between children with ADHD and healthy controls, and assessed changes in ToM among children with ADHD following administration of methylphenidate (MPH). Method: Twenty-four children with ADHD (mean age = 10.3 years) were compared with 36 healthy controls. All children completed the interpersonal reactivity index (IRI), a self-reported empathy questionnaire, and performed the “faux-pas” recognition task (FPR). Children with ADHD performed the task with and without MPH. Results: Children with ADHD showed significantly lower levels of self-reported empathy on most IRI subscales. FPR scores were significantly lower in children with ADHD and were improved, following the administration of MPH, to a level equal to that found in healthy controls. Conclusion: Children with ADHD show impaired self-reported empathy and FPR when compared with healthy controls. Stimulants improve FPR in children with ADHD to a level equal to that in healthy controls.

Impairments in ‘theory of mind’ (ToM) were linked to social cognition and reciprocal relationships deficits in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Twenty-four children with ADHD (13 with inattentive type and 11 with combined type, mean age 10.2 years) completed the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), a self-reported empathy questionnaire. All children performed the ‘faux pas’ task and a computerized ToM task in two different sessions either with or without administration of methylphenidate (MPH). Administration of MPH was associated with an improvement in cognitive and affective ToM. Children with ADHD-combined type had significantly lower scores in total IRI and the fantasy scale compared to children with ADHD-inattentive type. We conclude that deficits in empathy and ToM may play an important role in the impairments in social cognition and peer relationship in children with ADHD, especially children a hyperactive component. Stimulants may improve ToM and empathic functions. Future studies including larger samples and additional cognitive tasks are warranted in order to generalize these results and to identify possible underlying mechanisms for improvement in ToM following the administration of MPH.

The Deployment Risk and Resilience Inventory (DRRI) is a widely used questionnaire assessing deployment-related risk and resilience factors among war veterans. Its successor, the DRRI-2, has only been validated and used among veterans deployed for overseas military missions, but because many countries still enforce compulsory military service, validating it among nonclinical samples of healthy discharged soldiers following mandatory service is also a necessity. In the current study, a sample of 101 discharged Israeli soldiers (39 males, 62 females; mean time since discharge 13.92, SD = 9.09 years) completed the DRRI-2. There were 52 participants who completed the questionnaire at a second time point (mean time between assessments 19.02, SD = 6.21 days). Both physical and mental health status were examined, as well as symptomatology of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Cronbach's αs for all latent variables in the inventory ranged from .47 to .95. The DRRI-2 risk factors were negatively associated with psychological functioning, whereas resilience factors were positively associated with better self-reported mental health. Test-retest reliability coefficients were generally high (Pearson correlations were .61 to .94, all p values < .01). Our study provides evidence for the reliability and validity of the DRRI-2 in assessing salient deployment experiences among a nonclinical sample following mandatory military service.

Objective There is a dearth of up-to-date literature regarding electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in adolescents, and the question of when to pronounce course failure has not been properly addressed. The current study aims to evaluate trajectories of clinical status throughout ECT courses in adolescent patients. Methods We retrieved detailed data of 36 patients who received ECT in our treatment center. Clinical records were retrospectively assessed and evaluated every 6 ECT sessions to quantify Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement (CGI-I) scores. Results The mean number of sessions per course was 24.4 ± 14.2. The mean CGI-I score at the conclusion of the ECT courses was 2.47 ± 1.19. At the end of the acute treatment stage, 26 patients (72.2%) were much or very much improved, based on CGI-I scores. Only 5 patients exhibited a significant response after 6 sessions or fewer, whereas 21 patients (56.6%) improved after 12 sessions. Pearson correlations between CGI-I scores throughout the course of ECT showed no significant correlation between CGI-I scores after 6 sessions and the final CGI-I scores. However, a significant correlation was found between CGI-I scores after 12 sessions and the final CGI-I score. Conclusions An improvement in the clinical status of adolescents treated by ECT might occur only after a substantial number of sessions. An early lack of response does not necessarily predict a failed ECT course.