ABSTRACT
The overlap between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and alcohol or drug abuse or dependence (referred to here as substance use disorders [SUDs]) in adolescents and adults has been an area of increasing clinical, research, and public health interest worldwide. ADHD (the term ADHD used here also refers to previous definitions of the disorder) onsets in early childhood and affects from 6 to 8 percent of juveniles worldwide (Faraone, Sergeant, Gillberg, & Biederman, 2003) and 4 to 5 percent of adults (Kessler et al., 2006). Longitudinal data suggest that childhood ADHD persists in 75 percent of cases into adolescence and in approximately one-half of cases into adulthood (for a review, see Weiss, 1992). SUDs usually onset in adolescence or early adulthood and affect between 10 and 30 percent of U.S. adults, and a less defined but sizable number of juveniles (Kessler et al., 1994; Ross, Glaser, & Germanson, 1988). As reviewed, the literature demonstrates a bidirectional overlap between ADHD and SUD (Levin, Evans, & Kleber, 1999; Schubiner et al., 1995; Wilens, 2004a).
