The relationships between experimental task and questionnaire measures of reward/punishment sensitivity in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): protocol for a scoping review

Introduction One of the purported underlying causal mechanisms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is altered motivational processes. Questionnaires have been used to identify the characteristics of reward and punishment sensitivity in individuals with ADHD. However, these questionnaires were initially developed to measure individual traits related to anxiety (inhibitory) and impulsivity (approach) tendencies or differences in pleasure-seeking. These reward and punishment sensitivity questionnaires are useful but might not capture all relevant aspects of altered motivational processes in ADHD. The proposed scoping review aims to: 1) examine which aspects of hypothesized altered reward and punishment sensitivity correspond to constructs measured by existing questionnaires, 2) characterize the relationships between ADHD symptomatology and reward and punishment sensitivity as measured by existing questionnaires, and 3) evaluate the consistency between the altered reward and punishment sensitivity as measured by existing questionnaires and experimental task performance. Methods and analysis This scoping review will adhere to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Extension for Scoping Reviews and the Joanna Briggs Methodology for Scoping Reviews. Published English language literature will be searched in three electronic databases, with no restriction on the year of publication. Two researchers will independently screen all identified titles/abstracts and review the method sections of the identified papers to confirm their eligibility before proceeding to full-text review and data extraction. Methods, results, and conclusions will be tabulated by research questions. A narrative review, and summary conclusions will be presented. The evidence will be summarized as descriptive data in the Excel table. Ethics and dissemination This study reviews existing publications with ethical approval in place. Therefore, ethical approval is not required. Review results will be disseminated through academic conferences and peer-reviewed manuscripts. Scoping review results will also inform future research to measure and identify altered motivational processes in ADHD. Strengths and limitations of this study This scoping review is the first study to identify which aspects of ADHD reinforcement sensitivity have been measured by existing reward and punishment scales and comprehensively review studies reporting relationships between experimental task results and reward and punishment scales in ADHD. (strengths) This study will be conducted according to PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews. (strength) Results: will be summarized separately for children/adolescents and adults. (strength) This review includes only published peer-reviewed English language studies. (limitation)