TY - JOUR
PY - 2015//
TI - Childhood symptoms of ADHD and impulsivity in abstinent heroin users
JO - Journal of dual diagnosis
A1 - SegalĂ , Laura
A1 - Vasilev, Georgi
A1 - Raynov, Ivaylo
A1 - Gonzalez, Raul
A1 - Vassileva, Jasmin
SP - 174
EP - 178
VL - 11
IS - 3-4
N2 - OBJECTIVES: Heroin dependence is associated with deficits in impulsivity, which is also a core feature of ADHD. This study aimed to explore the association between childhood ADHD symptoms and cognitive and motor impulsivity among abstinent individuals with a history of heroin dependence.
METHODS: Thirty-two abstinent Bulgarian males with a history of heroin dependence participated in the study. Self-rated childhood ADHD symptoms were obtained using the Wender-Utah Rating Scale. Cognitive impulsivity was measured using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), an index of impulsive decision-making and the Delayed Reward Discounting Task (DRDT), a measure of inter-temporal choice. Motor impulsivity was indexed with the Stop Signal Task (SST), a measure of response inhibition.
RESULTS: Participants, whose average age was 27.66 years (SD = 2.7), had an average ADHD symptom score of 36.6 (SD = 18.6), roughly 7 years (SD = 2.9) of heroin use, and been abstinent for just over a year (M = 402.5 days, SD = 223.8). Linear regression analyses revealed that self-reported ADHD symptoms predicted impulsive decision-making (IGT), but not delayed discounting (DRDT) or response inhibition (SST).
CONCLUSIONS: Self-reported childhood ADHD symptoms do not uniformly predict impulsivity among abstinent individuals with heroin dependence.
RESULTS suggest the IGT may be more sensitive to externalizing psychopathology among individuals with heroin dependence than other measures of impulsivity.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 1550-4263 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15504263.2015.1104482 ID - ref1 ER -