Investigating the Relationship between Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Drug Abuse: a Case-Control Study

Background: Hyperactivity disorder is one of the most common psychiatric disorders that can contribute to negative consequences such as addiction in adolescence. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between addiction and hyperactivity disorder in Shahroud city. Methods: This is a case-control study with a sample size of 240. The case group included methadone-treated addicted drug abusers in Shahroud addiction clinic and the control group including patients admitted to the surgical wards of Imam Hossein hospital with no addiction to any drugs. We used the Conges (CAAR-S:OV) short-acting diagnostic questionnaire of adolescents (CAARS) for collecting the information. SPSS21 was used for data analysis with the significance level being set at 0.05. Results: This study included 150 controls and 90 cases. The mean age of cases and controls was 36.97 ± 10.40 and 31.57 ± 10.46 years, respectively. Although the case and control were statistically different in restlessness-hyperactivity (Pvalue = 0.034), they did statistically differ regarding the presence of hyperactivity disorder (Pvalue = 0.911). Conclusions: Since only the subgroup of restlessness-hyperactivity in the two groups was significantly different (the value was greater for the control group), it can be argued that in the addicted persons restlessness-hyperactivity is partially reduced by opiate.