This study assessed neuropsychological performance in controls and three clinical groups of children: (1) children with histories of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure, (2) non-exposed children diagnosed with ADHD, and (3) children with both prenatal alcohol exposure and ADHD. We sought to examine the relationship between prenatal alcohol exposure and ADHD on neuropsychological performance. Neuropsychological abilities were assessed using a test battery designed to measure general intellectual abilities and executive functioning. As hypothesized, across all neuropsychological domains, the alcohol-exposed children were more impaired than controls, regardless of ADHD diagnosis, and children with ADHD were impaired relative to controls, regardless of exposure history. These findings are consistent with previous studies in AE (Nigg, Blaskey, Huang-Pollock, & Rappley, 2002). Furthermore, six tasks showed significant interaction effects of ADHD and prenatal alcohol exposure, including two indices of general intellectual performance (WISC-IV Verbal Comprehension and Perceptual Reasoning), and four measures of executive functioning (D-KEFS Design Fluency, Verbal Fluency and Trail Making; CANTAB Spatial Working Memory).
