Adult ADHD
Visual Abstract
Increased Sensitivity to the Disinhibiting Effects of Alcohol in Adults with ADHD
Do individuals with ADHD become more disinhibited with alcohol?
Mark T Fillmore
Summarized by:
November 30, 2022
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Both alcohol and ADHD affect your inhibitions and how you respond to impulses.
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Researchers in the study wanted to see whether alcohol affects those with ADHD differently than those without ADHD.
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They found that individuals with ADHD responded to alcohol differently. They were much more susceptible to alcohol’s effects on their inhibitions.
Increased Sensitivity to the Disinhibiting Effects of Alcohol in Adults with ADHD
Background
You may know that alcohol helps you lose your inhibitions. It helps you get over things that you might be fearful or hesitant about. Some would say that it helps you loosen up.
Similarly, ADHD can affect how you respond to impulses. It can also affect your inhibitions. Some people with ADHD tend to be more impulsive than those without ADHD. They have difficulty inhibiting themselves.
ADHD has also been linked with heavy drinking and drinking disorders in adults and teenagers:
Researchers wanted to determine whether those with ADHD respond to alcohol’s effects differently, particularly when it comes to inhibitions.
Study Quote
The acute impairing effects of alcohol on inhibitory control have been well documented in healthy drinkers. By contrast, little is known about alcohol effects in individuals with disorders characterized by poor impulse control, such as those with ADHD. Alcohol could produce greater inhib...
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Methods
Researchers ran a small clinical study to examine how alcohol affects inhibitions in individuals with ADHD.
They recruited 10 volunteers with ADHD and 12 closely matched volunteers without ADHD.
They tested the volunteers with a computer program that prompted them to perform a task when given a cue. They were tested under different amounts of drunkenness. The task was designed to be challenging enough that they also had to be careful not to perform it when not given a go cue.
This test was designed to test whether they would be able to follow instructions and perform tasks and whether they would be able to keep themselves from performing the task when not given the cue to do so. This tested their ability to inhibit themselves
Study Quote
he present study tested this hypothesis in adults with ADHD (N = 10) and controls (N = 12) using the cued go/no-go task. The task requires quick responses to go targets and suppression of responses to no-go targets following the presentation of cues. Prior research on healthy adults show...
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Results
Researchers found that those with ADHD were much more likely to fail at inhibiting themselves at the computer task compared to those without ADHD when they were intoxicated with alcohol.
This effect was statistically significant. The difference between the ADHD and the non-ADHD groups grew with the amount of alcohol they drank.
Study Quote
Alcohol dose-dependently increased inhibitory failures in controls in the invalid, but not the valid, cue condition. By contrast, those with ADHD displayed significant alcohol impairment regardless of cue condition.
As you can see in the chart below, the inhibition failure was highest in the ADHD group with the highest dose of alcohol. Those who did not have ADHD did not have much trouble inhibiting themselves.
Study subjects with ADHD were far less likely to stop themselves from impulsive behavior.
Discussion
This study provides evidence that individuals with ADHD respond to alcohol differently. They might be more susceptible to loss of inhibition.
By contrast, the present study showed that those with ADHD displayed significant impairment of inhibitory control following alcohol regardless of cue condition. Following either valid or invalid cues, those with ADHD displayed dose-dependent increases in inhibitory failures in response to alcohol.
For those with ADHD, the more that they drink, the more they lose their ability to inhibit themselves.
Study Quote
Thus, unlike controls, valid cues offered little protection from the disinhibiting effects of alcohol in drinkers with ADHD, suggesting an increased sensitivity to alcohol-impairment of inhibitory control.