Sluggish Cognitive Tempo: A seperate disorder from ADHD?

[yankees440]

Sluggish cognitive tempo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT) is an unformalized descriptive term which is used to better identify what appears to be a homogeneous sub-subgroup within the formal subgroup ADHD predominantly inattentive (ADHD-I or ADHD-PI) classification in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition. It has been roughly estimated that the SCT population may make up 30-50% of the ADHD-PI population.
In many ways, those who have an SCT profile have the opposite symptoms of those with classic ADHD: Instead of being hyperactive, extroverted, obtrusive, and risk takers, those with SCT are passive, daydreamy, shy, and "HYPO"-active in both a mental and physical way. They also don't have the same risk factors and outcomes. Their demeanor is sluggish, as if "in a fog" and logically they also process information more slowly. A key behavioural characteristic of those with SCT symptoms is that they are more likely to appear to be lacking motivation. They lack energy to deal with mundane tasks and will consequently seek things that are mentally stimulating because of their underaroused state. Those with SCT symptoms show a qualitatively different kind of attention deficit that is more typical of a true information input-output problem, such as memory retrieval and active working memory. Conversely, those with the other two subtypes of ADHD are characteristically excessively energetic and have no difficulty processing information.^[1]

[roseblood]

Might be useful to separate them. But I wish these articles wouldn't keep using ADHD-PI (which I think is what I'll most likely be diagnosed with because my hyperactivity had a late onset so 'shouldn't exist') and SCT (which doesn't apply to me) interchangeably. I don't know if some of that is supposed to apply to me or not, such as the bit about lower doses of stimulants being better.

[dormammau2008]

i have found this to be confuisssing witch dont happen often

can you expaiane the subsets plz ie

more strongly to this group than to ADHD/C and ADHD/PHI subgroups.^[3]
It is thought that SCT, ADHD-PI, and ADHD are due to variations in the availability

i was not awere there was more than one subtype????

knew there was attive and in ataivecetive but what your saying i was not frmeiler with is this new rescurch? and dose this work the same with sdyicalxa???? the same way????????????? dorm

by the way it was good therd

[firstdesserts]

yankees440:

I've just recently joined as you have. I started a social group for Sluggish Cognitive Tempo. Please join us! (Anybody, of course!) Maybe we've got some research to swap! I would like to include the video of Dr. Barkley you have, but I didn't know how.

[yankees440]

Yeah, i'll join your group. What's the name of your group and where can i find it?
Also, here are a couple links to Dr. Barkley's conferences which include Sluggish Cognitive Tempo and future directions of this particular subtype

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3d1SwUXMc0&e

Here is another conference that Dr. Barkley spoke at, also contains a lot of good info on ADHD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WroDEcG7tJc

Let me know what you think of these videos

[firstdesserts]

yankees440 Yeah, i'll join your group. What's the name of your group and where can i find it?

yankees440,
This link should get you there... http://www.addforums.com/forums/group.php?groupid=60

I have watched both of these videos numerous times! Dr. Barkley is quoted often in the more scientific threads of this forum. I sent Dr. Barkley an e-mail in December after discovering the vids. I received a prompt and graciously helpful reply. I'll probably send one more before I see a neurologist.

I am presently reading through Dr. B's Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: a handbook for diagnosis and treatment 3rd edtion (2006). I'm not going cover to cover (it's a textbook the size of a college dictionary!) but sifting through the stuff that is relavant to SCT.

[firstdesserts]

dormammau: i was not awere there was more than one subtype????

Hey, Dorm,

Check out the first of the two videos in yankee440's reply. Most of what pertains to SCT is in the first and last twenty minutes or so. I hope it helps!

[yankees440]

Hey firstdesserts.. So you mentioned in this forum that your going to see a neurologist. Is it to get diagnosed or to get medications. If it's to get medications i could tell you that the medications i'm on for ADHD have greatly improved my life.

[firstdesserts]

Yankee440,

I'm hoping to get a more accurate diagnosis than ADHD. I'm not hyperactive, but hypoactive. I'm not too impulsive either. The symptoms Dr. Barkley describes as Sluggish Cognitive Tempo in your first video fits me like a glove - even the part about not being helped by Ritalin or Welbutrin.

[ADDMagnet]

Originally Posted by firstdesserts

Yankee440,

I'm hoping to get a more accurate diagnosis than ADHD. I'm not hyperactive, but hypoactive. I'm not too impulsive either. The symptoms Dr. Barkley describes as Sluggish Cognitive Tempo in your first video fits me like a glove - even the part about not being helped by Ritalin or Welbutrin.

Hi Firstdesserts,
I have the SCT symptoms as well and I take Vyvanse. It works great for me. Medications in the amphetamine class such as Adderall and Vyvanse usually work better for those who have inattentive ADHD or SCT symptoms.

ADDMagnet

[firstdesserts]

ADDMAGNET!
Yeah! That's the stuff I'm looking for! Thank you for your reply!

[D.B. Cooper]

Theres really no difference between SCT and ADHD-I.

[roseblood]

Originally Posted by D.B. Cooper

Theres really no difference between SCT and ADHD-I.

ADHD-PI (short for predominantly inattentive, not exclusively) means you didn't meet at least six of the hyperactive-impulsive symptoms for ADHD in the DSM-IV for at least six months before age 7. Not everyone in this category fits the SCT profile. There are many possible behaviour patterns in between those two extremes - for example the patterns of everyone who doesn't have ADHD at all. Personally I don't (according to my own best judgement) meet the criteria for ADHD-C, which were written for children, but all the same I'm more hyperactive than most people my age to an extent that is mildly impairing and distressing. For people like me, who are thought to make up the majority of those with ADHD-PI, SCT doesn't apply.

[firstdesserts]

D. B. & Rose,

You've both brought up issues I need to define. The first is where I am on the DSM-IV, and what symptoms deviate from it.