Inhibitory Control Deficits in Childhood and Risk for Substance Use Disorders: A Review

Abstract

Identification of neurobiological factors that confer risk for the development of addiction may substantially advance development of new prevention and treatment strategies to combat substance use disorders. This review focuses on the relationship between impulsivity—a behavior that is common to the clinical picture of both substance use disorders (SUD) and childhood disruptive behavior disorders—and neurobiological risk for SUD. It further examines various behaviors within the over-arching domain of impulsivity, ultimately focusing on the more narrowly defined and measurable construct of inhibitory control, and concluding that underlying deficits in inhibitory control may be central to many of the behaviors associated with high risk for SUD. Targeted cross-sectional study of the neural basis of inhibitory dyscontrol in subjects at high risk for SUD, who have not yet begun to abuse drugs, has the potential to generate important hypotheses regarding the neurobiological underpinnings of SUD risk. Hypotheses developed using this approach can be more definitively evaluated in longitudinal studies with these same populations, extending through the period of maximal risk for SUD in adolescence and early adulthood.

Keywords:

• Adolescence
• childhood disruptive behavior disorders
• drug abuse
• impulsivity
• inhibitory control
• vulnerability