Acoustic and Vestibular Noise as Possible Non-pharmacological Treatment of ADHD in School Children
Status:
Recruiting
Trial end date:
2027-05-31
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Noise benefit in ADHD Auditory noise benefit: The original findings from our research group,
that auditory noise enhances cognitive performance in inattentive children without diagnosis
as well as children with an ADHD diagnosis, have been replicated several times (Baijot et
al., 2016; Söderlund et al., 2016; Söderlund & Nilsson Jobs, 2016; Söderlund et al., 2007).
In a new study, the benefit of noise was shown to be in parity with or even larger than the
benefit of pharmacological ADHD treatment on two cognitive tasks, episodic word recall and
visuo-spatial working memory task. In the study a group of children diagnosed with ADHD were
tested on and off medication, at separate occasions, in noisy vs. silent environments while
performing the tasks (Söderlund, Björk et al., 2016).
Participants and recruitment: Participants with an ADHD diagnosis using medication will be
recruited from Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Lund and Malmö. Typically developing
children (TDC) and inattentive children without diagnosis will be recruited from schools in
collaboration with the municipality.
Experimental design: All participants will perform a double-blind placebo cross over control
study. ADHD participants will perform the entire test battery at three occasions with 2-3
weeks intermission in between tests. One occasion with placebo medication and sham SVS
stimulation; one occasion with active SVS stimulation; and one occasion with active
medication. TD children will only be tested twice while they will not be given any medication
or placebo and just perform under SVS vs. sham conditions.
Test battery: 1) Episodic memory will be tested trough Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT)
(e.g. Dige et al., 2008). 2) Visuo-spatial working memory will be tested through the
Spanboard task (Westerberg et al., 2004). 3) Motor-neurological investigation. 4) A finger
tapping task. 5) Evaluation of an iPhone auditory noise application in a normal school
setting. Our research group has developed an iPhone application (www.smartnoise.se) that is
available at App-store right now. The study will last for about 5 months and participants
will be 50 voluntary secondary school pupils that have documented attention difficulties as
judged by their teachers. The application will be evaluated both by pupils, teachers and
parents.