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The current study examined the impact of the lockdown due to the Covid-19 disease on mood state and behaviours of children and adolescents with ADHD. Nine hundred ninety-two parents of children and adolescents with ADHD filled out an anonymous online survey through the ADHD family association website. The survey investigated the degree of severity of six emotional and mood states (sadness, boredom, little enjoyment/interest, irritability, temper tantrums, anxiety) and five disrupted behaviours (verbal and physical aggression, argument, opposition, restlessness) based on their frequency/week (absent; low: 1-2 days/week; moderate: 3-4 days/week; severe: 5-7 days/week) before and during the lockdown. Important fluctuations were found in all dimensions during the lockdown independently by the severity degree. Subjects with previous low severity degree of these behaviors significantly worsened in almost all dimensions during the lockdown. On the contrary, ADHD patients with moderate and severe degree showed important improvement during the lockdown. Little enjoyment/interests and boredom resulted the dimensions more strongly affected by the condition of restriction, overall in children. Children vs. adolescents showed substantially similar trend but the former resulted significantly more vulnerable to emotive changes. The results provided both the individuation of domains affected, and the indirect benefits produced by restriction condition., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Although the relationship between alexithymia and psychopathology has been studied extensively in adults, research is lacking on alexithymia in childhood psychopathology. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between alexithymia and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The Italian version of the Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children was administered to a sample of 50 children with a DSM-IV diagnosis of ADHD, as assessed by means of the K-SADS PL, and to 100 healthy, age- and sex-matched children without ADHD. The total alexithymia score as well as the difficulty in identifying feelings (DIF) and externally oriented thinking factors were significantly associated with ADHD. The total alexithymia score, the DIF, and the difficulty in describing feelings factors were also significantly associated with symptoms of hyperactivity/impulsivity. No significant relationship between alexithymia and inattentiveness symptoms emerged. Results provide preliminary data on the relationship between alexithymia and ADHD. Findings point to an association between difficulty in identifying emotions and hyperactivity/impulsivity. Future studies conducted on larger patient samples, as well as longitudinal designs, are warranted to confirm our findings.