Vitria Adisetiyo, Ph.D.

Fellow in Child & Adolescent ADHD

Project Details

PROJECT TITLE

Differential and Predictive Brain Biomarkers of ADHD with High Risk for Substance Use Disorders

Project Summary

Adolescents with ADHD are nearly three times more likely to develop substance use disorders (SUD) than their typically developing peers, yet there currently are no biomarkers that can help clinicians identify which ADHD patients may benefit most from SUD prevention. This is a critical problem, given that ADHD psychostimulant medications – which are Schedule II Controlled Substances – are misused and abused by 26.7% of this population. Given that the reward-based goal-directed (RBGD) brain network has been shown to underlie the impulsivity/hyperactivity symptoms in ADHD and the initiation of SUD, this project hypothesizes that brain structural connectivity (i.e., number of neural fiber connections) and brain iron in this network are promising differential biomarkers of increased SUD risk in ADHD.

Brain structural connectivity and brain iron in the RBGD network will be examined by a cross-sectional study of three male cohorts (ages 14-18 years) without SUD diagnosis but stratified by behavioral indicators of SUD risk. Clinical assessments and neurocognitive tests will be conducted using established clinical surveys. High SUD risk will be definition by self-reported past/current illicit drug use, including psychostimulant misuse. Advanced non-invasive MRI methods will be used to measure brain structural connectivity and brain iron.