Evaluation of childhood Sluggish Cognitive Tempo among patients with substance use disorder, substance-induced psychosis and childhood ADHD

Objective: Substance use disorders (SUDs) include a pathological pattern of behaviors related with the effects of the drug used and are associated with substance-induced psychosis (SIP). Individuals with lower levels of self-control are particularly predisposed to develop SUDs and SIP. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether childhood sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT), which is a problem distinct from but related with ADHD, is associated with SUDs and SIP. Method: Fifty-seven SUD patients who had childhood ADHD symptoms and at least one SIP attack were enrolled the study. Patients were evaluated by Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Wender-Utah Rating Scale (WURS), and SCT Scale. Results: The rate of childhood SCT comorbidity was 63.8%. The total BPRS and conceptual disorganization, motor retardation, unusual thought content, blunted affect, excitement, and disorientation scores were higher in the childhood SCT group. SCT and WURS scores were positively correlated with BPRS scores but WURS scores were correlated with more psychotic symptoms and the correlations were stronger in WURS than SCT except “conceptual disorganization,” “motor retardation.” and “blunted affect.” Using linear regression analysis, we found that both childhood SCT and WURS scores significantly predicted the BPRS total, motor retardation, unusual thought content, blunted affect and excitement scores. Finally, the results of multivariate stepwise regression analyses indicated that tension and guilt significantly predicted WURS while blunted affect and conceptual disorganization predicted SCT scores. Conclusion: Approximately, 7 in 10 patients in this group seem to have had childhood SCT. SCT patients showed more proneness to psychotic symptoms when compared with others. In addition, there was a relationship between blunted affect, conceptual disorganization, and SCT.

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