Intrusive thoughts, sensation seeking, and drug use in college students

Abstract

The relationships between drug use, task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs), self-reported sensation seeking, retrospective self-reported personality characteristics, laterality, eye dominance, and allergies in college students who were diagnosed in childhood as having attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was investigated. Three groups (high- and low-activity and ADHD subjects) reported both spontaneous and deliberate TUTs during a vigilance task. Intrusive thoughts were found to be predictive of drug use/attitudes, but, to a greater extent, sensation seeking accounted for most drug-related behavior. Left-eye dominance was related to increased childhood hyperactive behaviors and to spontaneous TUTs. Of the three groups, subjects diagnosed as having ADHD had more spontaneous TUTs. These results are consistent with biological models.