ADHD Medications and Youth Substance Abuse Risk

A new study published in JAMA Psychiatry has found that youth who are prescribed stimulants to treat their ADHD are not more likely to become addicted to drugs later in life. Michael Reardon, M.D., a child neurologist at Pediatrix® Specialty Care of Austin, shared that, in practice, practitioners are keenly aware of addictions when it comes to young people with ADHD. “The very long-standing viewpoint from the standpoint of like psychiatry, mental health, child neurology is that having ADHD increases the risk of experimenting with tobacco, alcohol, drugs; increases the risk of getting into problematic substance use; and that having ADHD that’s not treated or not well managed, increases the risk of substance use problems,” said Dr. Reardon. “Whereas, ADHD that’s being treated and managed well lowers that risk.”

View the full story on Healthline