Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud

Sex differences are poorly studied within the field of mental health, even though there is evidence of disparities (with respect to brain anatomy, activation patterns, and neurochemistry, etc.) that can significantly influence the etiology and course of mental disorders. The objective of this work was to review sex differences in adolescents (aged 13–18 years) diagnosed with ADHD (according to the DSM-IV, DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5 criteria) in terms of substance use disorder (SUD), prevalence, pharmacological therapy and mental health. We searched three academic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus) and performed a narrative review of a total of 21 articles. The main conclusions of this research were (1) girls with ADHD are more at risk of substance use than boys, although there was no consensus on the prevalence of dual disorders; (2) girls are less frequently treated because of underdiagnosis and because they are more often inattentive and thereby show less disruptive behavior; (3) together with increased impairment in cognitive and executive functioning in girls, the aforementioned could be related to greater substance use and poorer functioning, especially in terms of more self-injurious behavior; and (4) early diagnosis and treatment of ADHD, especially in adolescent girls, is essential to prevent early substance use, the development of SUD, and suicidal behavior.

Background: Synthetic cannabinoids (SC) are difficult to detect in urine samples, and therefore an appropriate strategy is required to investigate its potential consumption. In this work, we have designed a study to investigate SCs consumption by minors in juvenile offenders’ centres. Methods: 127 minors were selected from five juvenile offenders’ centres in the Valencian Autonomous Community (Spain). 667 urine samples were collected after their therapeutic permits with stay at home. We studied the active molecules from 7 herbal blends available at the smartshop frequented by minors. Both, the herbal blends and urine samples were analysed by liquid chromatography coupled to hybrid quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Results: Regarding cannabis consumption, 40.2% (N=51) of the subjects reported using organic or synthetic cannabis: 5.9% of them reported only to consume synthetic cannabis, 37.2% synthetic and organic cannabis and 56.9% only organic cannabis. The urine samples analysis revealed the absence of the parent SCs investigated, but the presence of the main metabolites from two SCs (XLR-11, UR-144): N-pentanoic acid and N-(5-hydroxypentyl). The 16 individual urine samples positives to the XLR-11 metabolites could be assigned to 6 minors, 2 of which recognize consumption whereas the remaining 4 adolescents did not recognize consumption of SCs. Conclusions: Synthetic cannabinoids, specifically, XLR-11, are consumed in juvenile offenders’ centres in the Autonomous Valencian Community. Preventive and therapeutic interventions in minors housed in those centres must be implemented to reduce the consumption of new psychoactive substances and to improve the risk-perception of these substances.