Attention deficits disorder and drug abuse.

Abstract

Recent research studies have attempted to explore various aspects of attention deficit disorder and substance abuser subtypes. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the effect of drug abuse on MMPI scale score profiles of alcoholics with or without attention deficit disorder symptoms. For the alcoholic group with ADDRT versus the alcoholic group with ADDRT and drug abuse there were no significant differences between the groups. The hypothesis that the factor of drug abuse would account for MMPI score differences between alcoholics with or without ADDRT failed to be supported. Regardless of whether or not the subject groups contained drug abusers or not, the ADDRT-diagnosed groups demonstrated clinically significant levels of psychopathology on the MMPI profiles. These results would suggest that the variable of ADDRT diagnosis is probably an important factor to consider in substance abuser populations.