Children With ADHD at Risk for Alcohol Disorders

Children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are at risk for developing alcohol and other substance abuse related disorders, especially if they have an alcoholic parent or they have stressful experiences in the family. New research has found that drinking problems for these children begin around age 15.

"Children with ADHD are believed to be at risk for alcoholism because of their impulsivity and distractibility, as well as other problems that often accompany ADHD such as school failure and behavior problems," explained Brooke Molina, associate professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, and corresponding author for both studies.

"We found that the children with ADHD were more likely than the comparison group to drink heavily and to have enough problems related to their drinking that they were diagnosed with alcohol abuse or dependence," said Molina in a news release. "This means that their drinking caused problems such as fights with their parents or friends, a drop in their grades at school, or difficulty with controlling the amount of alcohol that they drank."

Problems Begin Around Age 15

"Drinking problems began around age 15," said Molina. "The 15-to-17-year olds with childhood ADHD reported being drunk an average of 14 times in the previous year, versus only 1.8 times for 15-to-17-year olds in the study who did not have childhood ADHD. Whereas 14 percent of the 15-to-17-year olds with childhood ADHD were diagnosed with alcohol abuse or dependence, none of the 15-to-17-year olds without childhood ADHD were."

"It appears that one of the reasons for the past inconsistencies in research is that the ADHD-alcohol relationship does not become solid until at least mid-adolescence," observed Stephen Hinshaw, professor and chair of the department of psychology at UC Berkeley. "Later on, it may be that only a subset of kids with ADHD -- namely, those with more aggressive or antisocial behavior patterns -- are at risk by young adulthood."

Both Problems Run in Families

"One of the reasons that children with ADHD might be at risk for alcohol problems is that alcoholism and ADHD tend to run together in families," said Molina. "We found that parental alcoholism predicted heavy problem drinking among the teenagers, that the association was partly explained by higher rates of stress in these families, and these connections were stronger when the adolescent had ADHD in childhood.

"So, the bottom line is that when the child has ADHD and the parent has suffered from alcoholism, either currently or in the past, the child will have an increased risk for alcohol problems himself or herself."

These two studies on ADHD and alcoholism risk -- "ADHD Risk for Heavy Drinking and Alcohol Use Disorder is Age-Specific" and "ADHD Moderates the Life Stress Pathway to Alcohol Problems in Children of Alcoholics" -- were published in the April 2007 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

More Information:

• Children With ADHD at Risk for Alcohol Problems
  
• Adult Alcoholism, ADHD Connected
  
• Anxiety Sensitivity and Drinking Alcohol

^{Photo: Clipart.com}