Dyslexia and Substance Use in a University Undergraduate Population

ABSTRACT

Background: A number of cognitive deficits are associated with dyslexia. However, only a limited amount of research has been performed exploring a putative link between dyslexia and substance use. As substance use is thought to involve a cognitive component, it is possible that the pattern of substance use would be different for dyslexic participants, when compared to nondyslexic controls. During the current study, a guiding hypothesis was that people with dyslexia would demonstrate less substance use than nondyslexic controls. Theories of memory activation, automaticity, and attentional bias in substance use suggest that cognitive components of substance use are important in the development and maintenance of continued substance use and it is thought that, at least some of these components, would be impaired in a dyslexic population. Objectives: If the cognitive deficits displayed by dyslexics somehow impair the development of cognitive components of substance use, substance use for dyslexic participants may be less pronounced. This paper therefore examines this hypothesis by comparing substance use within dyslexic and nondyslexic participants, from an undergraduate population. Methods: This was an exploratory questionnaire-based study. Dyslexic participants (n = 35) were compared to control participants (n = 62) on a series of questions designed to measure their substance use history. Results: The results provided preliminary evidence of a difference between dyslexic and nondyslexic substance use. Dyslexics reported a substance use history that was significantly lower than nondyslexic controls. Conclusions/Importance: These results are interpreted in terms of cognitive deficits within dyslexia and with reference to the cognitive model of substance use.

Keywords:

• Dyslexia
• substance use
• attentional bias
• automaticity
• memory activation

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Thomas D. W. Wilcockson

Thomas D. W. Wilcockson obtained his PhD from Swansea University. He then performed postdoctoral research at London South Bank University for 2 years before moving to Lancaster University. He is primarily interested in the use of eye-tracking techniques in order to infer cognitive processes and/or deficits. This work has enabled him to work with populations of substance abusers, learning deficits, and neurodegenerative diseases.

Emmanuel M. Pothos

Emmanuel M. Pothos studied physics at Imperial College, during which time he obtained the Stanley Raimes Memorial prize in mathematics, and continued with a doctorate in experimental psychology at Oxford University. He has worked with a range of computational frameworks for cognitive modeling, including ones based on information theory, flexible representation spaces, Bayesian methods, and, more recently, quantum theory. He has authored approximately eighty journal articles on related topics, as well as on applications of cognitive methods to health and clinical psychology. Pothos is currently a professor in psychology at City University London.

Angela J. Fawcett

Angela J. Fawcett is a leading international researcher into dyslexia and other developmental disabilities. She is an Emeritus professor at Swansea University, and former Director of the Centre for Child Research. Angela is Vice President of the British Dyslexia Association, and former editor in chief of the journal Dyslexia. She has proposed 3 of the major theories of dyslexia with Rod Nicolson, and is the author of 8 screening tests for dyslexia, including the best-selling DST-J, all published by Pearson Education.