Faculty Articles

The Correlation between Inattentiveness and Depression in an Adult Population Sample

Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

9-2021

Publication Title

Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology

ISSN or ISBN

0887-6177

Volume

36

Issue/Number

6

Abstract/Excerpt

Objective

To test if there is a correlation between the inattentive domain of the Conners Continuous Performance Task 3rd Edition (CPT-3) and depression scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2).

Method

Adult mixed psychiatric clinical sample was derived from a large de-identified database through a SPSS descriptive statistics analysis. Participants (n = 256) were a diverse distribution of race (62.1%Caucasian,16%Latinx,12.9%African American, and 9%Other), gender (60.5%female, 39.5%male), age (27.25-years average), and education (16-years average). Each participant was administered the Conners CPT-3 to evaluate the inattentive domain which consisted of Detectability, Omissions, Commission, Hit-Reaction-Time (HRT), HRT-Standard-Deviation, and Variability; and the MMPI-2. A bivariate correlation was run to determine significance.

Results

The CPT-3 and MMPI-2 were correlated at p < 0.01 significantly on Variability with the K-Scale (r = −1.69) and VRIN-Scale (r = 0.177). They were correlated at p < 0.05 significantly on Variability with the TRIN-Scale (r = 0.126) and 2-Scale (r = 0.152); on HRT-Std-Dev with the TRIN-Scale (r = 0.127) and 1-Scale (r = 0.128); on Omissions with the VRIN-Scale (r = 0.151) and 9-Scale (r==0.126); and on Commissions with the 7-Scale (r = −0.124) and 8-Scale (r = −0.124).

Conclusion

Mitchell et al. (2013) conducted a study to assess the relationship between ADHD and negative automatic thoughts associated with depression in adults which found that inattentive ADHD significantly associated with negative automatic thoughts. Although the current analysis found some correlation between the measures, there was a lack of significant correlation between inattentiveness and depression. These findings are important as they contradict a criteria for depression. Further research is needed to understand the dynamic between the two measures.

DOI

10.1093/arclin/acab062.156

Peer Reviewed

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