Studies on the hyperactive child-VII: Neurological status compared with neurotic and normal children.

Abstract

Twenty hyperactive children were compared with neurotic and normal controls. Hyperactive children showed significantly more neurological abnormalities, principally an excess of soft signs reflecting sensorimotor incoordination, but no differences in major neurological signs, EEG abnormalities, or medical history. It is hypothesized that chronic hyperactivity in children of normal IQ is a disorder discrete from neurosis and is probably an organic syndrome, most likely a biological variant rather than part of a continuum of reproductive casualty. A test of interexaminer reliability showed most of the neurological signs to be highly reliably observable.