The Association Between Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Nicotine Use among Medical students

Abstract

ince tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable deaths in Western societies so understanding the link between smoking and ADHD is very important to deal with such hazardous behavior. People suffering from ADHD show higher rates of nicotine dependence than people who do not experience ADHD-symptoms. Why this happens is currently not fully understood. Several explanations were discussed here. In order to get a better grasp on this relationship, the merits and limitations of the most common explanations, self-medication, and cognitive and social factors were discussed here. The self-medication theory shows great theoretical strength in that the known effects of nicotine have been shown to better cognitive and attentional deficits, which are common to ADHD. Several studies showed at least some evidence underlining the possibility of self-medication for ADHD-smokers. More evidence for self-medication has been found in the differences in smoking habits linked to specific symptom severity. In general, most of the evidence points to more severe inattention problems being linked to higher smoking rates. This finding could be explained from a self-medication point of view. Nicotine is known to have a positive influence on attention. Since more inattentive ADHD-patients seem more