Many of you have heard or read about the term "Executive Function"; it may have been used if an evaluation for ADHD was done by a neuropsychologist. What is the relationship between problems with Executive Function and ADHD? Are they one in the same?
Executive function refers to a set of mental skills that includes the ability to:
As one can see, Executive Function problems are asociated with, or are a part of , the clinical syndrome known as ADHD. However, Executive Function problems are not limited only to ADHD; they may be seen with:
The simplest was to think about executive function, is that all patients diagnosed with ADHD have problems with Executive Function, but not all patient with Executive Function problems have ADHD.
I hope that clarifies the issue a little bit.
Regards,
Mitchel Katz, MD