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Dopamine reuptake inhibitors are effective for treating ADHD in children, and preclinical work has found a relation between dopamine receptors and behavior (e.g., mice with a knocked-out dopamine transporter are hyperactive). Thus, several research teams have investigated whether genetic variations in dopamine genes are associated with ADHD. The subjects in the current study were 90 drug-naïve children (age range, 7–17) in Brazil, who were diagnosed with ADHD after a comprehensive diagnostic process.
The children underwent neuropsychological testing and were genotyped for a polymorphism on the dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) gene — a 48-basepair allelic variant with 4 or 7 repeats. Data analyses controlled for age (mean age differed in the two g…