Does Cannabis, Cocaine and Alcohol Use Impact Differently on Adult Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Clinical Picture?

Abstract

While the association between adult Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (A-ADHD) and Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) has been widely explored, less attention has been dedicated to the various substance use variants. In a previous paper, we identified two variants: type 1 (use of stimulants/alcohol) and type 2 (use of cannabinoids). In this study, we compared demographic, clinical and symptomatologic features between Dual Disorder A-ADHD (DD/A-ADHD) patients according to our substance use typology, and A-ADHD without DD (NDD/A-ADHD) ones. NDD patients were more frequently diagnosed as belonging to inattentive ADHD subtype compared with type 1 DD/A-ADHD patients, but not with respect to type 2 DD/ADHD. NDD/A-ADHD patients showed less severe symptoms of hyperactivity/impulsivity than DD/A-ADHD type 1, but not type 2. Type 1 and type 2 patients shared the feature of displaying higher impulsiveness than NDD/A-ADHD ones. General psychopathology scores were more severe in type 2 DD/ADHD patients, whereas type 1 patients showed greater similarity to NDD/A-ADHD. Legal problems were more strongly represented in type 1 than in type 2 patients or NDD/A-ADHD ones. Our results suggest that type 1 and type 2 substance use differ in their effects on A-ADHD patients—an outcome that brings with it different likely implications in dealing with the diagnostic and therapeutic processes.

Keywords

• attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
• adult ADHD
• substance use disorder
• dual disorder