D. Deas; H. Upadhyaya; S. Thomas. Psychiatry, Medical University of S.Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA.

Co-occurring psychiatric disorders in adolescents with substance abuse is common. While many studies have explored the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in adolescent substance using samples, few have explored the relationship between comorbid psychiatric disorders and drinking behaviors in adolescents.

We examined 34 outpatient adolescents with alcohol use disorders for comorbid psychiatric disorders using the K-SADS. Their drinking behavior patterns were examined using the Time-Line follow-Back. The alcohol drinking parameters were (1) drinks per drinking day (DDD), (2) percent heavy drinking days (PHD), (3) percent heavy drinking days when drinking (PHDD), and (4) percent days abstinent (PDA).

The diagnoses that afforded sufficient power to examine the effect of that diagnosis on drinking behavior were any mood or anxiety disorders vs. neither; oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) vs. no ODD; and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) vs. no ADHD. Results revealed no significant effect of either ODD or any mood anxiety disorder on drinking indices, both p values > .10; MONOVA revealed a significant effect of ADHD diagnosis, p=.04. Univariate analysis showed that for all four drinking indices, the group with ADHD had more severe alcohol use, all p values <.05.

Our results suggest that adolescents with ADHD who meet diagnostic criteria for alcohol use disorders have greater drinking severity than those without ADHD.