Soldati Lorenzo, Hasler Roland, Schockaert Pauline, Deiber Marie-Pierre, Köhl John, Bolmont Mylène, Perroud Prof. Nader

(26) SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DESEASES AND ADHD: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

  • Urology
  • Reproductive Medicine
  • Endocrinology
  • Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
  • Psychiatry and Mental health
Save to CiteDrive Show PDF

Abstract Objectives Subjects with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) suffer from inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. Clinicians often assume that the specific difficulties of ADHD are bound to affect sexual behaviours, and favour risky sexual behaviors (RSBs), thereby increasing the frequency of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). This review is intended to provide an up to date synthesis of the literature surrounding STDs in patients with ADHD. Methods A systematic review of the literature was performed using Medline, PsychInfo and Embase databases, with STDs as the main outcome measure. Results 8 articles were included in the systematic review. Three studies showed significantly higher frequencies of STDs in ADHD populations and three did not show any significant difference with control. Two studies showed a signifiantly lower age at first STD contraction. Two studies showed that use of ADHD medication was related to a lower risk of subsequent STD. Conclusions This is the first systematic review of STDs in individuals with ADHD, suggesting that subjects with ADHD report more STDs than the general population. Some authors hypothesized that these results could be explained by impulsivity, hyperactivity and inattention of ADHD, but also emphasized the role of psychiatric comorbidities, especially substance use disorders. The results of this review lead us to recommend that psychiatrists treating ADHD make their patients aware of the risk of STDs and that better compliance with medication is a protective factor for STDs. Results are limited by the small number of existing studies as well as the heterogeneity of the outcome measures. Further studies are warranted to better evaluate the risk of contracting a STD in subjects with ADHD. Conflicts of Interest The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Need a simple solution for managing your BibTeX entries? Explore CiteDrive!

  • Web-based, modern reference management
  • Collaborate and share with fellow researchers
  • Integration with Overleaf
  • Comprehensive BibTeX/BibLaTeX support
  • Save articles and websites directly from your browser
  • Search for new articles from a database of tens of millions of references
Try out CiteDrive

More from our Archive