Pilot Evaluation of Atomoxetine on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Symptoms in Adolescents With Cannabis abusE

Measures total improvement (or worsening) of a patient's ADHD symptoms from the beginning of treatment. (1=very much improved, 7=very much worsened)

The Global Impression of Perceived Difficulties (GIPD) scale is a five-item rating of ADHD-related difficulties. For each item, difficulties during the past week are rated on a 7 point scale (1=normal, not difficult at all; 7= extremely difficult). The GIPD total score is the sum of all subscores (items) and ranges from 5 to 35. Higher scores indicate greater impairment. The scale is completed by the participant.

Measures presence and severity of depression. Consists of 17 items scored on a 1-5 or 1-7 scale (1 = no symptom difficulties; 5 or 7 = severe clinically significant difficulties) A rating of 1 indicates normal, thus the minimum score is 17. The maximum score is 113. In general, scores below 20 indicate an absence of depression; scores of 20 or 30 indicate borderline depression; scores of 40 to 60 indicate moderate depression.

The Pediatric Anxiety Rating Scale (PARS) is used to rate the severity of anxiety in children and adolescents, ages 6 to 17 years. The total score for the PARS is derived by summing 5 of the 7 severity/impairment/interference items (2,3,5,6,7). The total score ranges from 0 (none) to 25 (extreme severity). Items 1 (overall number of anxiety symptoms) and 4 (overall severity of physical symptoms) are not included in the total score calculation.

The MCQ is a 12-item self-rated questionnaire to assess cannabis craving with 4 factors: compulsivity (an inability to control marijuana use), emotionality (use of marijuana in anticipation of relief from withdrawal/negative mood), expectancy (anticipation of positive outcomes from smoking marijuana) and purposefulness (intention and planning to use marijuana for positive outcomes). Scores are calculated on a 7-point scale (1=strongly disagree; 7=strongly agree). A separate score is calculated for each factor; scores range from 3-21 each with higher scores indicating greater craving.

Consists of 2 types of trials: go trials and stop trials. Go trials require participants to locate the position of an aircraft displayed to the left or right of a fixation point on a computer screen by pressing a left or right button. In 25% of the go stimili an additional stop stimulus (auditory signal) is presented shortly after the go stimulus. Participant then needs to inhibit their response. By varying the time period between go and stop stimulus, 50% of the trials are inhibited successfully, 50% not. The latency of inhibition is estimated. This task takes about 25 minutes.

For the Contingency Task participants estimate the duration of a time interval of 1 second by pushing a button. Responses that are within a dynamic time interval are being classified as correct. This way, 50 % of the responses are correct, 50% incorrect. Three contingency conditions: neutral, reward and response cost. The performance of this task takes about 15 minutes.

For the Time Reproduction Task participants need to reproduce the duration of a visual stimulus (lightbulb) by pressing a button. The intervals vary between 2 - 20 seconds. The performance of this task takes about 15 minutes.

Solicits suicide-related information with structured questioning. Scale consists of 28 items in 4 sections: suicide behavior, actual attempts, suicidal ideation, intensity of ideation. Suicidal ideation consists of 5 yes/no items: wish to be dead, non-specific active suicidal thoughts, active suicidal ideation with any methods (not plan) without intention to act, active suicidal ideation with some intent to act without specific plan, active suicidal ideation with specific plan and intent. Only items with yes responses at a given week are listed.

Participants rate most common and most severe ideation type by frequency (1=<once per week/5=many times/day), duration (1=fleeting/5=>8 times per hour persistent, continuous), controllability (1=easily able to control thoughts/8=no attempt), deterrents to active attempts (1=deterrent definitely stopped you/8=N/A, wish to die only), and reason for ideation (1=completely for attention/revenge/reaction/5=completely to stop the pain). Only items with yes responses at a given week are listed. A participant could have a yes response in more than one item.