Dorien Bangma

132 | CHAPTER 6 tend to make decisions in a more impulsive manner, often sacrificing choice accuracy for speed (Patros et al., 2016). This impulsiveness has furthermore been associated with deficits in delay gratification and delay discounting. This means that children and adolescents with ADHD are more likely to prefer choice options linked to small, immediate rewards over those linked to larger, delayed rewards than children and adolescents without ADHD (Mies et al., 2019; Patros et al., 2016; Sonuga‐Barke et al., 1992). Moreover, the ability to learn from past decisions, which would enhance successful decision making, seems to be impaired in children with ADHD (Humphreys et al., 2018). Research shows that such problems in learning from experience may arise from an aberrant sensitivity to feedback in the form of punishment and reward (Luman et al., 2005; Masunami et al., 2009). Whereas the symptoms of adults with ADHD may resemble those starting in (early) childhood, the disorder does not necessarily manifest identically in children and adults. For example, the intensity of the expression of ADHD symptomatology, especially hyperactivity, changes in adulthood (Gentile et al., 2006). Although little research has been done into the development of cognitive functioning in individuals with ADHD in the period from childhood to adulthood, there are also indications that neuropsychological functioning improves with age, as has been demonstrated for measurements of response inhibition and selective attention (Bramham et al., 2012). However, adults with ADHD also more frequently present with psychiatric comorbidities than children and adolescents with ADHD (Gentile et al., 2006). This comorbid symptomatology may negatively affect the subjective symptom severity in adults with ADHD (Bramham et al., 2012). Because of the disparities between adult- and childhood ADHD, the understanding of decision making in adults with ADHD cannot mainly rely on research conducted in the childhood population. Since adults often have to make more fundamental and complex decisions than children and adolescents, it is however likely that the negative consequences of potential deficits in decision making will increase in adulthood. The aim of the current review was therefore to determine the nature and extent of potential deficits in the decision making of adults with ADHD. To this end, the existing literature has been systematically searched for studies comparing the performance of adults with ADHD on decision-making tasks with the performance of a healthy control group. Methods A systematic literature search of all available literature addressing decision making and ADHD was carried out according to the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA; Moher et al., 2009). Relevant literature was searched by consulting the databases PsycINFO, MEDLINE and PubMed. The primary keywords for the literature search were ADHD , Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or Attention-Deficit- Hyperactivity-Disorder and the secondary keywords were decision making , decision-making , decision , judgment or judging . A combination of primary and secondary keywords (e.g., ADHD [AND] decision-making) had to appear in the abstract and/or title of the articles. Next, the search results were refined to include English-language, peer-reviewed articles only. Selection