exploring impulsivity, compulsivity and internet use

Allow me to paint a scene. I’ve invited you to have dinner at my house. As we gather around the dinner table, I serve you a Beef Wellington, fresh from the oven. In this metaphor, the Beef Wellington represents the research article (Findon et al., 2025) that I am going to share. Each layer of the Beef Wellington represents a section in this blog: Puff pastry (introduction), mushroom duxelles (methods) and beef tenderloin (results). Let’s dive in!

Globally, 2.58% of adults are diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and 6.76% show symptoms of ADHD (Song et al., 2021). People with ADHD constantly struggle with impulsive tendencies (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), which is correlated with a higher risk of behaviour addictions, such as problematic internet use (Li et al., 2016; Yen et al., 2017), gambling (Dai et al., 2016; Romo et al., 2014) and exercise addiction (Colledge et al., 2022; Popat et al., 2023).

Moreover, some people with ADHD also have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) (Tan et al., 2016), suggesting that they struggle with compulsive tendencies. And that higher levels of compulsion are correlated with severe internet use, gambling and exercise addictions (Demetrovics et al., 2022).

With the above relationships shown, Findon et al., 2025 investigated:

1. Whether people with ADHD display behaviour addiction and have higher levels of impulsivity, compulsivity and related distress.
2. The relationship between behaviour addiction and impulsivity, compulsivity and associated distress.

If you think the puff pastry looks interesting, let’s cut open the Beef Wellington to see what’s inside!

Previous research showed that people diagnosed with ADHD are more likely to have behaviour addictions.

Methods

Participants were recruited via online advertising or voluntary sampling. In the end, 346 people participated (264 female, 73 male, 9 other), 137 from the healthy control group, 110 from the medicated ADHD group and 99 from the unmedicated ADHD group. The inclusion criteria were:

Participants completed an anonymous survey through Qualtrics, where they were further asked if they had a specific learning difference, and those with ADHD were asked if they were medicated or not. This allowed the researchers to divide the ADHD participants into ADHD-medicated and ADHD-unmedicated group, and to compare the findings between groups.

Participants then completed 6 standardised measures:

• Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) – to assess symptoms of ADHD in adults
• Impulsive-Compulsive Behaviours Checklist – to measure problematic impulsive and compulsive behaviours and related distress
• Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-15 – to measure impulsivity
• Exercise Dependence Scale-Revised – to measure exercise dependency
• Brief Problem Gambling Screen-5 – to assess problematic gambling behaviour
• Short Compulsive Internet Use Scale – to assess problematic internet use

Results

Comparing the relationship between the ADHD group and health control group on impulsivity, compulsivity and addiction:

Not surprisingly, the study found that participants in both the ADHD-medicated and ADHD-unmedicated groups had increased impulsivity, compulsivity and related distress compared to the healthy control group. There were also no significant differences between both ADHD groups. What is surprising is that this study did not find adults with ADHD to be more likely to have problematic gambling behaviours than those in the control group, which contradicts past research (Dai et al., 2016; Romo et al., 2014). This may be due to the characteristics of the sample, as only 51 participants take part in gambling activities, and within those, 32 had an ADHD diagnosis. Therefore, the sample size was too small to make any definite conclusions.

Moreover, this study found that participants in the ADHD and healthy control groups did not differ in terms of exercise dependency. However, those with a diagnosis of ADHD experienced symptoms of exercise addiction, such as heightened exercise withdrawal for both medicated and unmedicated ADHD groups, and increased exercise continuance in the medicated ADHD group. Since this is the first study to discover this, future studies with a larger sample size are needed to confirm these findings.

The only behaviour addiction found to be significant was problematic internet use, meaning that people with ADHD, both medicated and unmedicated, are more likely to be addicted to online consumption than those in the healthy control group. No significant differences were found in the ADHD-medicated and the ADHD-unmedicated group.

Relationship between addiction and impulsivity, compulsivity and related distress:

• A weak correlation between impulsivity and exercise (p<0.05) and problematic gambling behaviours (p<0.05), and a moderate correlation for problematic internet use (p<0.001).
• For impulsive and compulsive related distress, there is a weak correlation with exercise dependency (p<0.001) and problematic gambling behaviours (p<0.001) and a moderate correlation with problematic internet use (p<0.001).
• Compulsivity is weakly correlated with exercise dependency (p<0.001) and moderately correlated with problematic internet use (p<0.001). Problematic gambling behaviours were not significantly correlated.
• Although the above correlations were not strong, it was largely significant.
• The researchers performed linear regression and found no predictive value. Meaning that impulsivity, compulsivity and related distress cannot predict behaviour addictions.

This small study found that people with ADHD were more likely to present with problematic internet use than healthy controls.

Conclusions

In conclusion, people with ADHD have increased impulsive and compulsive tendencies and related distress. Those with ADHD were also more likely to have problematic internet use and showed symptoms of exercise dependency. Moreover, impulsivity and distress caused by impulsiveness and compulsiveness are correlated with problematic gambling behaviours, problematic internet use and exercise dependency. Compulsivity is only associated with problematic internet use and exercise dependency.

I hope you liked the Beef Wellington. Although it wasn’t entirely what we had expected, it was still juicy and tender with a hint of new flavours. Now, let’s talk about the good and bad of the Beef Wellington.

This study found that people with ADHD experienced more impulsive and compulsive tendencies than healthy controls. People with ADHD also displayed increased distress due to those tendencies.

Strengths and limitations

The researchers divided participants into those with ADHD and healthy controls. The healthy control group can establish a baseline, therefore, when comparing the results with the ADHD group, a clear group difference emerges. The researchers also further divided ADHD participants into medicated and unmedicated groups, as previous research showed a difference in risk of addiction between people with ADHD who are medicated and unmedicated (Biederman et al., 1999; Turner et al., 2018).

Additionally, the researchers used standardised measures for ADHD, problematic gambling behaviours, problematic internet use, exercise dependency, impulsivity, compulsivity and related distress. This allows the research to have good reliability and validity, also enabling meaningful comparison with other research that uses the same measures.

During the data processing and analysis process, the researchers ensured methodological rigour by:

• Removing 4 participants for not providing their age
• Excluding 31 healthy control participants for providing an ongoing neuropsychiatric condition
• Removing 5 ADHD participants for scoring lower than the threshold on ASRS
• Removing 27 ADHD participants for not providing medication information
• Removing 5 ADHD participants for over-medication
• Removing 38 ADHD participants for low medication adherence
• When performing blocked linear regression, the assumptions of multicollinearity and singularity were checked and not violated.

A limitation of this study is the lack of generalisability. The majority of the sample is female (76.3% female; 22.8% male; 2.6% other) and white (90.5% white, 7.8% BAME; 1.7% other/ prefer not to say). It is important to ensure good generalisability, as past research has shown that BAME ethnic groups were more likely to be problematic gamblers than the white ethnic group (Caler et al., 2017), and that gambling is more common in males than in females (Wardle et al., 2024). Moreover, studies have found that white males were more likely to have symptoms of exercise dependency than BAME females (MacIntyre et al., 2021). As for problematic internet use, both males and females experience symptoms (Su et al., 2020), with more Asian population experiencing internet addiction than those in other ethnic groups (Lopez-Fernandez, 2015). Therefore, a limitation of this study is the lack of generalisation to a more diverse population, and the findings can only be applied to those identified as white females.

Moreover, this study relies on self-reported ADHD diagnosis, which can be problematic. Although the study also used the ASRS to aid in classifying participants into the healthy control group or the ADHD group, other research has shown that ASRS has lower sensitivity (Kessler et al., 2005) and should only be used alongside a clinical judgement (Vňuková et al., 2022). The researchers of the study acknowledged this limitation and suggested that conducting clinical interviews with the participants to determine whether they should be in the healthy control group or the ADHD group would increase the study’s robustness.

It is important to note that the study looked at correlational relationships. Therefore, causal relationships cannot be made.

It is important to note that the study looked at correlational relationships. Therefore, causal relationships cannot be made.

Implications for practice

Since this study found that ADHD is correlated with compulsivity, a psychologist could introduce coping strategies, allowing the individual to manage their compulsive tendencies effectively. If an individual displays heightened compulsivity, it may be worth screening for other psychiatric disorders, such as OCD. Moreover, I browsed some websites that provided information on ADHD, and found that barely any mention the relationship between ADHD and compulsivity. Therefore, there should be more online, easily accessible information on the link between ADHD and compulsivity, so individuals with related symptoms can better understand themselves and seek professional help if needed.

More information is also needed about heightened exercise withdrawal for people with ADHD. Especially since exercise is recommended for managing ADHD symptoms (Ng et al., 2017). Future research could also explore the underlying mechanism for exercise withdrawal in people with ADHD.

Regarding the finding of a higher risk of problematic internet use for people with ADHD, more intervention studies, specifically Randomised Controlled Trials looking at the ADHD population, are needed to develop an effective strategy to reduce internet use for people with ADHD (Yum et al., 2025). This is important as the internet is becoming harder to avoid, and many apps are deliberately designed to grab users’ attention. Therefore, more research is needed so that people with ADHD can manage their internet use and improve their daily functioning.

So, how did you like our little dinner gathering? I personally quite enjoyed it. The study has some novel findings and identified key directions for future studies.

More research is needed on the relationship between ADHD and gambling addiction to validate the findings of this study.

Statement of interests

None.

Edited by

Dafni Katsampa

Links

Primary paper

Findon, J. L., Muck, A., Tóthpál-Davison, B., & Dommett, E. J. (2025). Investigating behavioural addictions in adults with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. PLoS ONE, 20.

Other references

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.).

Biederman, J., Wilens, T., Mick, E., Spencer, T., & Faraone, S. V. (1999). Pharmacotherapy of Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Reduces Risk for Substance Use Disorder.

Caler, K. R., Vargas Garcia, J. R., & Nower, L. (2017). Problem gambling among ethnic minorities: results from an epidemiological study. Asian Journal of Gambling Issues and Public Health, 7(1).

Colledge, F., Buchner, U., Schmidt, A., Wiesbeck, G., Lang, U., Pühse, U., Gerber, M., & Walter, M. (2022). Individuals at Risk of Exercise Addiction Have Higher Scores for Depression, ADHD, and Childhood Trauma. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 3.

Dai, Z., Harrow, S. E., Song, X., Rucklidge, J. J., & Grace, R. C. (2016). Gambling, Delay, and Probability Discounting in Adults With and Without ADHD. Journal of Attention Disorders, 20(11), 968–978.

Demetrovics, Z., van den Brink, W., Paksi, B., Horváth, Z., & Maraz, A. (2022). Relating Compulsivity and Impulsivity With Severity of Behavioral Addictions: A Dynamic Interpretation of Large-Scale Cross-Sectional Findings. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13.

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Lopez-Fernandez, O. (2015). International Archives of Addiction Research and Medicine Cross-Cultural Research on Internet Addiction: A Systematic Review.

MacIntyre, R. I., Heron, K. E., Howard, L. M., & Symons Downs, D. (2021). Gender and Black–White Race Differences in Young Adult Exercise Dependence Prevalence and Associated Disordered Eating. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 92(4), 680–688.

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Popat, P., Dinu, L. M., Runswick, O., Findon, J. L., & Dommett, E. J. (2023). Investigating the Relationship Between Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Obligatory Exercise and Exercise Addiction. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 21(3), 1365–1377.

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Song, P., Zha, M., Yang, Q., Zhang, Y., Li, X., & Rudan, I. (2021). The prevalence of adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: A global systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Global Health, 11, 1–9.

Su, W., Han, X., Yu, H., Wu, Y., & Potenza, M. N. (2020). Do men become addicted to internet gaming and women to social media? A meta-analysis examining gender-related differences in specific internet addiction. Computers in Human Behavior, 113.

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Wardle, H., Degenhardt, L., Marionneau, V., Reith, G., Livingstone, C., Sparrow, M., Tran, L. T., Biggar, B., Bunn, C., Farrell, M., Kesaite, V., Poznyak, V., Quan, J., Rehm, J., Rintoul, A., Sharma, M., Shiffman, J., Siste, K., Ukhova, D., … Saxena, S. (2024). The Lancet Public Health Commission on gambling. In The Lancet Public Health (Vol. 9, Issue 11, pp. e950–e994).

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Yum, Y. N., Li, X., Poon, K. Y., & Leung, C. H. (2025). Reducing smartphone overuse for adolescents with attention-deficit hyperactive disorder: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. BMC Psychiatry, 25(1).

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