Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Controversies - Substance Use Disorders

Substance Use Disorders

Studies investigating whether stimulant medication can lead to drug abuse later in life found that despite the higher rate of substance abuse among ADHD patients as a whole, stimulant medication use in childhood did not affect or lowered, the risk for substance of abuse in adulthood compared to unmedicated individuals with ADHD.

A 2009 review, and a 2006 study, found that those who had received stimulants during childhood showed the highest number of cocaine abusers in adulthood, twice that of the other groups thus suggesting that stimulant use during childhood was associated with sensitising or predisposing children to cocaine abuse later in life. Smoking tobacco also appeared to increase the risk of cocaine abuse in this population but even after controlling for tobacco exposure cocaine abuse was still significantly higher in adults who had been medicated with stimulants as children. This risk was still present 15 years after stimulant medication exposure.