Brain imaging is not necessary to make the diagnosis of ADD, although it may be helpful in certain complicated cases. This subtype of ADD typically responds best to psychostimulant medication. This subtype of ADD also typically responds best to psychostimulant medication. Overfocused ADD , with symptoms of trouble shifting attention, cognitive inflexibility, difficulty with transitions, excessive worrying, and oppositional and argumentative behavior. There are often also symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity.
Aggression tends to be more common with left temporal lobe abnormalities.
This subtype typically responds best to stimulating antidepressants such as buprion or imipramine, or venlafaxine if obsessive symptoms are present. They often do not respond to psychostimulant medication and in many cases are made worse by them. They tend to improve with either anticonvulsant medications, like Depakote or Neurontin, or the new, novel antipsychotic medications such as Risperdal or Zyprexa. The symptoms of this pattern tend to be severe oppositional behavior, distractibility, irritability and temper problems and mood swings. We think it may represent an early bipolar pattern.