Efficacy of Lisdexamfetamine Dimesylate for Promoting Occupational Success in Young Adults With ADHD

There has been little research on the third area of impairment noted in the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - "occupational functioning." Individuals with ADHD
experience job-related impairments including a greater likelihood of being unemployed and not
enrolled in school and for those that were employed they were in a lower status occupation,
relative to typically-developing comparison peers. The current literature on analogue
workplace settings and the effects of lisdexamfetamine dimesylate includes office-based tasks
similar to school seat work. Unfortunately, this is inconsistent with the typical work
environment most common for individuals with disabilities such as ADHD where food preparation
is the most common job following high school. Therefore, medication effects in this type of
setting, most common for individuals with ADHD entering the workforce, need to be studied.
The investigators propose to study workplace behavior in an analogue work setting in a
laboratory "pizza place." Individuals with ADHD will participate in an interview with a
supervisor each day, have a list of deliveries that need to be managed, deal with situations
that require occupational judgment and appropriate customer service, and drive to make
deliveries accurately and on-time. These behaviors can be reliably assessed within the
laboratory. Twenty young adults will participate in two "workdays" within a randomized,
double-blind, placebo-controlled design wherein participants will be administered placebo and
.3 mg/kg lisdexamfetamine dimesylate in a counter-balanced order.