Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Risk of Substance Use Disorder: Developmental Considerations, Potential Pathways, and Opportunities for Research

Abstract

Many opportunities to explain attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-related risk of substance use disorder (SUD) remain available for study. We detail these opportunities by considering characteristics of children with ADHD and factors affecting their outcomes side by side with overlapping variables in the developmental literature on SUD etiology. Although serious conduct problems are a known contributor to ADHD-related risk of SUD, few studies have considered their emergence developmentally and in relation to other candidate mediators and moderators that could also explain risk and be intervention targets. Common ADHD-related impairments, such as school difficulties, are in need of research. Heterogeneous social impairments have the potential for predisposing, and buffering, influences. Research on neurocognitive domains should move beyond standard executive function batteries to measure deficits in the interface between cognitive control, reward, and motivation. Ultimately, maximizing prediction will depend, as it has in the SUD literature, on simultaneous consideration of multiple risk factors.