Study Finds Children With ADHD More Likely to Substance Abuse
A study conducted by professors of the Massachusetts General Hospital Pediatric Psychopharmacology Unit in Boston found that children with ADHD are more likely to abuse drugs, smoke or drink than unaffected children.
"Our study, which is one of the largest set of longitudinal studies of this issue to date, supports the association between ADHD and substance abuse found in several earlier studies," lead author Dr. Timothy Wilens said.
Around 30 percent of ADHD children developed a substance addiction while only 25 percent of children without ADHD developed a substance abuse problem. The study was published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was five (I´m thirty now), and I wasn´t pumped full of amphetamines as a kid.
Perhaps you should do a little research before posting such an outlandish comment?
The reason that kids with ADD and ADHD would be more likely to abuse a substance is because they are looking to curb the edge off their excess energy and to be able to focus on one thing versus the bazillion things our brains process.
I didn´t say everyone with ADD or ADHD is pumped full of amphetamines. The ones who are though are, i am sure, are responsible for that 5% increase. Study´s show that the earlier you are exposed to psychoactive drugs, the more likely you are to have addiction issues. If what you said is true, rather than just a cop out, then all people with ADD/ADHD would be more likely to develop substance addiction, not 30%. Trust me, I am an addictions counselor and i know what i am talking about. the amphetamines are to blame here.
Pretty sure 25 years ago they didn´t dole out aderall like candy.
aderall = Dextroamphetamine and Amphetamine
ritalin = Methylphenidate which has properties similar to amphetamine and is a psychostimulent.
Parents that decide not to treat their kids with stimulents for ADD and ADHD, but find other ways to get the kids to cope (and it can be done) are heroes in this day and age.
I´m betting they are basing the abuse % on how many get charged and convicted, not the ones who use and never get caught or found guilty! I´ve known many a ADHD person since I was a kid and all the ones who were put on anti-adhd drugs ended up using some sort of illegal drug. Very few that weren´t on these "Legal" drugs who had ADHD still used illegal drugs but that´s probably on Par with those who didn´t have any ADHD diagnosis. Kids who weren´t on those stims (and had adhd) had about as much chance of doing illegal drugs as kids who weren´t adhd. You get a kid used to taking "meds" and they probably will look for an outlet or "quick fix" like taking illegal drugs!
From the paper the article is written about, "As previously reported,[26] and [27] lifetime treatment reported at baseline was examined: any medication (medication only, medication plus therapy) versus other types of treatment (therapy only, hospitalization, no treatment). There was no significant interaction term between treatment and sex (p > .05). Among subjects with ADHD, any medication was not significantly associated with subsequent SUD (or alcohol/drug/cigarette; HR 0.83; 95% CI 0.51–1.35; p = .45) while adjusting for sex (HR 0.85; 95% CI 0.50–1.45, p = .56), SES (HR 0.70; 95% CI 0.40–1.25; p = .23), and parental history of SUD (HR 1.12; 95% CI 0.66–1.91; p = .67)."
There was no correlation between medication and SUD. (note SUD = substance use disorder)
@risqman2006 It wasn´t based on conviction, it was based on a clinical structured interview of the participants of the study. If anything, it probably under evaluates the problem as people are less likely to admit drug use or down play the severity.
And by using your logic of medication for youth leads to drug addiction, should we ban aspirin from children? It´s the same ´quick fix´ mentality.
First of all you need to check the source of the research funding, researchers for decades "proved" cigarettes were not harmful because of the bias agenda. Also saying that exposing children to psychoactive stimulants will not increase there chance of other drug abuse is absurd. That goes against everything addiction education has come to find. As for your asprin theory, sure it has the "Quick fix" mentality, which is what gets people to try things, But asprin does not have the chemical pay off E.G. release of dopamine, Adreneline, nuro-peptides ect.... which are responsible for the development of abuse, dependence ect... And all ADD/ADHD medications produce these chemical releases.
This was printed in a fairly major journal, and as such was peer reviewed, meaning that experts in the field assessed the paper on the basis of it´s methodology and findings. The ´smoking doesn´t prove lung cancer´ wouldn´t have been printed by any reputable journal unless the methodology was sound, and more likely, would have been released to the public via external groups not via journals.
I did a little more digging and found a meta analysis (an analysis of all the studies conducted with their data pooled) which asked the same question as yourself. It found the reverse was true, over 10 studies it found those who were medicated were shown to be less prone to SUD then those with ADHD who were not.
´Does Stimulant Therapy of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Beget Later Substance Abuse? A Meta-analytic Review of the Literature´ Timothy E. Wilens, MD*‡, Stephen V. Faraone, PhD*‡, Joseph Biederman, MD*‡, Samantha Gunawardene, BS*
Also the study was conducted by the "Clinical and Research Program in Pediatric Psychopharmacology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston". Funding would probably be from that institute.
Also, lots of things cause the release of dopamine, epinephrine (the american word for adrenaline) and neuropeptides. Dopamine for instance is released in the retina in response to light, the dopamine doesn´t leave the retina but may be used as a neurotransmitter to modulate rod and cone activity by amercrine cells for instance.
give some people pharmaceutical grade methamphetamine for 20 years, then watch what happens on the day they (for whatever reason) can no longer access it.
If that person lives somewhere where they´ve had no contact with illegal drugs or drugdealers and they´ll probably just start drinking (may or may not become an alcoholic)
Put that same person in a place where drugs are easily accessible (almost any major city) and try to tell me a large percentage of them won´t go out and find drugs to crave the withdrawls.
As an addict in recovery, and from what I´ve learned about addiction (mental and physical) it only makes sense that a high portion would go out seeking illegal drugs of some kind.
When you become physically dependent on ANY drug(legal or non) your brain chemistry permanently changes to crave more of that drug. Over time those cravings dwindle, but they never, ever, truly go away.
I know people with 20+ years clean and sober, that still have "drug dreams"(the brain literally saying "hey I still want this) and cravings. They´ve just learned how to deal with them/ignore them.
Hell, I just woke up from a dream where I kept buying heroin(the drug I abused most for 4 years). I´ve got almost 2 years clean, with nothing other than cigarettes and occasional caffeine being imbibed.
1 study doesn´t prove anything, and meta studies are also absolutely notorious for being biased.(see cherry picking studies to include in meta-study).
Well said tiz. I don´t care what any study say´s. If you expose someone, expecially children, to psychoactive drugs, Their chances of using other drugs increases. expecially powerful and pure stimulants. plain and simple. @tiggy, I don´t know what you were talking about with the dopamine and eyeball thing, but when the "medication" enters the receptors in the brain tons of dopamine is released and floods the brain along with other chemical releases.
"try to tell me a large percentage of them won´t go out and find drugs to crave the withdrawls."
That´s exactly what the study previous stated. Medication lead to decreased abuse of substances. The reasons why are irrelevant, but that seems to be the current findings. You´ve made the assumption that it´s use leads to addiction, and that this addiction is great enough to lead to withdrawals and the withdrawals are sever enough to cause someone to seek it out. Ritalin taken properly does not, to my knowledge, give a buzz but subtly alters brain chemistry. The same as a single drink doesn´t make you drunk, it´s the abuse of that drink that does.
or perhaps it´s possible that people with ADHD are more likely to seek sensation, have a lower inhibition towards drugs or have an actual need to change their brain chemistry that increases the likelihood of seeking out drugs?
It´s a common theme on SN that when a scientific article is on an important topic, if the results confirm what they consider "common sense" it´s a waste of time and money, but if the results run counter to that, it´s a fabrication, poorly conducted or a conspiracy.
"I don´t care what any study say´s. If you expose someone, expecially children, to psychoactive drugs, Their chances of using other drugs increases."
Well the study I previously found states that in this case, treatment with drugs decreases someone with ADHD to become dependent on illicit drugs. You are free to your beliefs, but understand you run counter to scientific evidence and your statement is not based on logic.
"@tiggy, I don´t know what you were talking about with the dopamine and eyeball thing, but when the "medication" enters the receptors in the brain tons of dopamine is released and floods the brain along with other chemical releases."
I understand what you mean, I was using an example of where else dopamine is used in the brain that is not related to the mesolimbic system. Also, eating increases release of dopamine in brain, serotonin too, is that the cause of obesity? Things don´t function that simply in the brain.
The reason I said I don´t care what the study says is because I am Currently a collage student for Addiction counseling and all of my education says If you expose someone, expecially children, to psychoactive drugs, Their chances of using other drugs increases. Plain and simple, my statement is based in real logic, those study´s are not. I am sure the study´s do not include individuals that no longer take their "medication". If they still have there supply of drugs from a pharmacy, of course they wont seek them on the street.
" If you expose someone, expecially children, to psychoactive drugs, Their chances of using other drugs increases."
While this may be true in healthy controls, these aren´t a ´healthy´ cohort of children, they have ADHD. This was shown to have an effect on SUD.
"... statement is based in real logic, those study´s are not."
You clearly haven´t read the study, so how can you say it´s not based on logic? Because it didn´t give you the answer you wanted? You based your opinion not on scientific consensus but on personal judgement that runs counter to scientific opinion, with no experimental evidence.
" If they still have there supply of drugs from a pharmacy, of course they wont seek them on the street."
So, if they take their medication, they´re less likely to tend towards SUD?
If you´re at an educational institution you should have access to databases like medline, web of science, science direct etc. free of charge, use it, look up the papers and consider the results.
but I think you´re all talking about different aspects of the same thing here and are all correct in different ways.
ADHDers can have a lower instance of abuse if they regularly take medication; because it has also been reported they tend to seek drugs to ease their ADHD symptoms like jediman said.
I have seen another study besides this one which also says they are more likely to experiment with drugs (alcohol, tobacco, ect) at a younger age (which may be due to their open-minded and impulsive nature while unmedicated).
It´s also been reported by a Ph.D. psychopharmacologist at the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the UCLA School of Medicine, that animals in nature, including humans, have an innate drive to find and take mind altering substances (monkeys do it too). This could partially explain why once people take drugs, they usually want more and are more prone to addiction.
All I am saying is if you take drugs, and yes ADD/ADHD medication is a drug, then due simply to the exposure of that drug and it´s effects will raise your chance of abuse, dependence, ect...
