Severe Attention Disorder Linked with Drug Abuse
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Jasbird Jasbird#dead-mail-b...@myrealbox.com
<http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId...> Severe Attention Disorder Linked with Drug Abuse Sunday, August 17, 2003 6:48 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder are more likely to smoke, drink and use illegal drugs, U.S.
researchers reported on Sunday.
It could be because children with the disorder -- called ADHD -- have trouble paying attention, have problems at school and difficulty with relationships with friends and family. This, in turn, could make them susceptible to abusing drugs and alcohol, the researchers said.
It also shows it is important to diagnose and treat ADHD early, the researchers write in the August issue of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.
Psychologists Brooke Molina of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and William Pelham of the State University of New York at Buffalo compared 142 teen-agers aged 13 to 18 who had been diagnosed with ADHD to 100 children without ADHD.
They looked for antisocial behavior reported by the teachers and parents and questioned the children.
Children with ADHD had a higher risk of abusing alcohol and heavier drugs, and were more likely to smoke, at younger ages, than non-ADHD children, they found.
"Childhood ADHD symptoms, particularly the inattention dimension of ADHD, predicted later substance use to a greater degree than childhood antisocial behaviors," Molina said in a statement.
About 72 percent of the children still had ADHD as teens and they reported getting drunk more often and more cigarette smoking than adolescents without childhood ADHD.
"A child may begin having poor academic performance and peer difficulties and then gravitate toward nonconformist peer groups as an adolescent where substance abuse is accepted as a way of life," said Molina.
Copyright ?© 2003 Reuters Limited.
Jasbird Jasbird#dead-mail-b...@myrealbox.com
<http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-08/apa-soa081203.php> Contact: Pam Willenz pwill...@apa.org 202-336-5707 American Psychological ***ociation Severity of ADHD in children increases risk of drug use in adolescence Inattention symptoms appears to be culprit of early drug use and multiple substance use WASHINGTON -- Children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more at risk for using illicit drugs, having problems with alcohol, smoking cigarettes, and using marijuana in their adolescence than children without ADHD, say researchers who report their findings on childhood predictors of later substance use in the August issue of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, published by the American Psychological ***ociation (APA). Furthermore, childhood ADHD is linked to earlier first use of cigarettes, earlier progression to daily smoking and earlier use of illicit drugs.
According to the study, those children with the most severe attention problems in childhood were most at risk for alcohol and marijuana problems and cigarette smoking by their teens. Those children with ADHD with other behavior problems, such as defying parents and fighting, were also at risk for illicit drug use, but severity of attention problems was a better predictor for drinking, tobacco, and marijuana outcomes. This could be, say the researchers, because problems with paying attention in childhood have an immediate effect on school learning and social relationships, which may set the stage for other problems later on that include drug use and abuse.
Psychologists Brooke S. G. Molina, Ph.D., and William E. Pelham, Jr., Ph.D. compared drug use between 142 teenagers (13-18 years of age) diagnosed with ADHD in childhood with 100 children (same ages) without ADHD, using measures of ADHD and antisocial behavior reported by the teachers and parents. Because the children with ADHD had been diagnosed and followed from childhood, the researchers were able to evaluate whether the severity of symptoms in the ADHD group predicted elevated drug use in adolescence.
The presence of ADHD in childhood was found to increase the risk for elevated use and abuse of alcohol and heavier drugs and the earlier use of tobacco and other drugs by the teenage years, said the authors.
Furthermore, said Dr. Molina, "childhood ADHD symptoms, particularly the inattention dimension of ADHD, predicted later substance use to a greater degree than childhood antisocial behaviors." This suggests that the severity of ADHD is a leading factor for the early emergence of substance use behavior, said Molina. Thus, it was not surprising that those children who still had ADHD in adolescence (about 72% of them) reported more drunkenness from alcohol, more alcohol problems, and more cigarette smoking than the adolescents without childhood ADHD. Children with ADHD who developed severe conduct problems by adolescence (about 26% of them) reported the highest levels of drinking, smoking, and drug use.
The ADHD symptom of inattention versus hyperactivity and oppositional defiant disorder/conduct disorder (ODD/CD) better predicts later substance use, suggest the authors, because "executive functions ***ociated with inattention and not hyperactivity may be at the root of the progression to substance use. A child may begin having poor academic performance and peer difficulties and then gravitate toward nonconformist peer groups as an adolescent where substance abuse is accepted as a way of life," said Molina.
The study may not have found strong prediction from symptoms of impulsivity because they are few and confounded with the hyperactivity symptoms. Both inattention and impulsivity are likely to play important roles in prediction of later substance use outcomes for ADHD children.
This study sheds light on the importance of early identification and treatment of problems with paying attention in childhood. Knowing the early signs of ADHD, providing early intervention, and providing help to teachers and parents through the teenage years, may help teachers and parents recognize risk factors and intervene before a child's use of alcohol and drugs turns into a life long dependence, said the authors.
### Article: "Childhood Predictors of Adolescent Substance Use in a Longitudinal Study of Children With ADHD," Brooke S. G. Molina, Ph.D., Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and William E. Pelham, Jr., Ph.D., State University of New York at Buffalo; Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Vol. 112, No.
3.
Full text of the article is available from the APA Public Affairs Office or at http://www.apa.org/journals/abn/press_releases/august_2003/abn1123497... Brooke S. G. Molina, PhD can be reached by phone at 412-624-4633.
"Jeff Utz" kidsdoc2...@hotmail.com
It has been known for a while that kids with ADHD have higher risk taking behaviors, including alcohol and drug abuse.
All the best, Jeff
smcgr ...@mcgrail1.demon.co.uk (smcg)
No, its been known that there is a correlative relationship between the goup of young people demonstrating the combination of symptoms that can be diagnosed as adhd, or indeed the diagnosis of adhd itself and a greater percieved level of risk taking behaviours.
However if you explore further you find that the group of young people most likely to be diagnosed as experiencing adhd are also those young people who across various indices of vulnerablility will score highest of theoir cohort.
"Steve Harris" sbhar...@ix.RETICULATEDOBJECTcom.com
Therefore to treat this, we prescribe them a cl*** of drugs which is widely abused.
And "abusers" of this cl*** of drugs (defined as people who don't have a prescription), we jail. Do they have untreated ADHD? We don't want to know. Especially people who believe there is such a thing as ADHD don't want to know. They metaphorically stick their fingers in their ears and say "la-la-la-la-la", when you bring up the topic.
SBH
en ...@yahoo.com (SzaszFan)
Or, you could consider the radical suggestion that the phenomena we call ADD/ADHD is not, in fact, a disease at all.
smcgr ...@mcgrail1.demon.co.uk (smcg)
uh huh ... a collection of symptoms, an unmanageability all neatly identified as a syndrome. Lovely. P*** the prescription pad doctor, I believe I'm going to become pathological .....
px ...@cadence.com (Pete nospam Zakel)
If it's the correct treatment, then what's the problem?
Note that one study shows that kids with ADHD who are treated with that cl*** of drugs end up with a risk of alcohol and drug abuse equal to those without ADHD.
Doesn't that indicate that perhaps the treatment is working?
-Pete Zakel (p...@seeheader.nospam) Sex is like a bridge game --
If you have a good hand no partner is needed.
"Steve Harris" sbhar...@ix.RETICULATEDOBJECTcom.com
abuse equal to those One study shows that women who live in big cities are 3 times as likely to get breast cancer as women who don't.
Do you think this means all women should move to the suburbs?
SBH
px ...@cadence.com (Pete nospam Zakel)
The two studies aren't comparable.
Unless you know what causes the increase in breast cancer, suggesting any solution is probably premature. Especially one as radical as what you suggest.
-Pete Zakel (p...@seeheader.nospam) "Admiration: Our polite recognition of another's resemblance to ourselves."
smcgr ...@mcgrail1.demon.co.uk (smcg)
There are no kids with adhd. there are kids with a diagnosis of adhd which is what we do when a conglomeration of symptoms occurs. It enables us to provide treatment and some consolation for parents . This is not to say that adhd can never be a useful diagnosis - particularly if it leads to treatment and support for parents who are often at the end of their tether ((a diagnosis is re***uring - and helps people who are isolated by difficulties like those of many parents whose children are 'undiagnosed').
However working with correlative incidence against a diagnosis made up of various symptons in various combinations is not particularly useful.
Like schizophrenia we have come to diagnose on the basis of available mediations (ie: if the medication 'works' then it must be "...".) this is a convenience for many involved, however if extended it leads to lazy/pseudo science and a lack of understanding of how anything other than the purely pathological or physically environmental impacts on the human condition.
"dC" drco...@netzero.net
The point is: Beware of Correlations! Maybe the error occurs when the man on the street takes studies at face value. One valuable thing I learned in Research Methods is that you've got to look behind those results to find out how those researchers arrived at that conclusion.
As far as ADD goes, I have had attention deficit disorder all my life and just got it diagnosed several years ago. As a teen-ager, I treated myself illegally with the use of dexedrine and felt like I could think ... what a dilemna, though, with the outside world labeling me an "addict"!
dC
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