{"id":20311,"date":"2025-11-23T18:18:45","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T17:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=20311"},"modified":"2025-12-07T18:05:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T17:05:54","slug":"why-there-may-be-a-link-to-adhd-and-substance-use-among-young-sexual-minority-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2025\/11\/why-there-may-be-a-link-to-adhd-and-substance-use-among-young-sexual-minority-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Why there may be a link to ADHD and substance use among young sexual minority men"},"content":{"rendered":"<header>\n<div class=\"release_date\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">Rutgers University &#8211; News Release <time datetime=\"TODO\">12-Nov-2025<\/time><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"subtitle\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Rutgers Health researchers reveal how attention difficulties and impulsivity may heighten vulnerability to early and frequent substance use among young sexual minority men<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"entry\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">Young sexual minority men \u2013 a term used to describe gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men \u2013 with attention-deficit\/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms are more likely to begin using substances such as cigarettes, alcohol, cannabis, stimulants and illicit drugs at an earlier age, according to Rutgers Health researchers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">The\u00a0study, published in the<em>\u00a0Journal of Gay &amp; Lesbian Mental Health<\/em>\u00a0and led by the\u00a0Center for Health, Identity, Behavior &amp; Prevention Studies\u00a0(CHIBPS) at the Rutgers School of Public Health, analyzed data from 597 young sexual minority men to assess ADHD symptoms and their associations with substance use.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">The researchers found clinically significant ADHD symptoms were both common and strongly associated with heightened risk and earlier initiation of substance use. Inattentive symptoms were closely tied to cigarette use, while both inattentive and hyperactive\/impulsive symptoms predicted earlier use across all substances assessed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">\u201cGiven that young sexual minority men are disproportionately impacted by several other mental and physical health problems, this phenomenon warrants further attention from healthcare providers, researchers, and policymakers alike,\u201d said\u00a0Kristen Krause, an assistant professor at the School of Public Health and co-author of the study.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">Findings also suggested key differences across subgroups. The connection between ADHD and early-onset substance use was stronger among bisexual men than among gay men, suggesting that tailored prevention strategies may be needed to address distinct vulnerabilities within the sexual minority population.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">Krause, who also is the deputy director of the center, said the findings underscore the importance of integrating mental health and substance use screening and prevention efforts for sexual minority youth, particularly young men. Early identification of ADHD and intervention strategies could help reduce long-term health disparities in this group.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">\u201cAt CHIBPS, we have long understood that health risks do not occur in a vacuum but that they are the result of the complex interplay of person, social conditions, and physical and mental health,\u201d said\u00a0Perry N. Halkitis, dean of the School of Public Health and senior author of the study. \u201cModern and relevant public health approaches recognize that simply telling people to become vaccinated, wear a condom every time, and\/or of banning menthol cigarettes is simply not enough.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">\u201cThe focus must be on the person not the drug or the pathogen,\u201d said Halkitis, whose forthcoming book,\u00a0<em>Humanizing Public Health: How Pathogen-Centered Approaches Have Failed Us<\/em>, will be published by Johns Hopkins University Press in the winter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">Halkitis, who is the director of the center, and the researchers said future studies should use different measurement tools to better estimate ADHD prevalence and severity in sexual minority men. Longitudinal approaches that account for factors such as resilience, mental health comorbidities and social support could offer deeper insights and inform more effective interventions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">Source: https:\/\/www.eurekalert.org\/news-releases\/1105751<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>ABOUT RUTGERS HEALTH<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">As New Jersey\u2019s academic health center, Rutgers Health takes the integrated approach of educating students, providing specialized and compassionate clinical care for its communities, and conducting innovative research, with the goal of life-changing health\u00a0 for all. Rutgers Health is a \u201cbench-to-bedside\u201d institution, bringing discoveries in the lab\u00a0 directly to patients across the state and around the world. It includes eight schools, a\u00a0 behavioral health network, and 11 centers and institutes in Newark and New\u00a0 Brunswick<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rutgers University &#8211; News Release 12-Nov-2025 Rutgers Health researchers reveal how attention difficulties and impulsivity may heighten vulnerability to early and frequent substance use among young sexual minority men Young sexual minority men \u2013 a term used to describe gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men \u2013 with attention-deficit\/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[144,129,68,120,119,127,19,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-age-related","category-culture","category-drug-use-various-effects","category-mental-health","category-prevalence","category-sexual-behaviour","category-usa","category-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20312,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20311\/revisions\/20312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}