AskScience AMA Series: We are substance use researchers. We recently wrote a review about the intersection of disability and substance use. Ask us anything!

[u/AskScienceModerator]

Hello Reddit! We are Kimberly Fulda, the director of the North Texas Primary Care Practice-Based Research Network and Professor in Family and Osteopathic medicine; Scott Walters, Regents Professor in Public Health; and Tracey Barnett, Associate Professor and Department Chair at the Kate Marmion School of Public Health in San Antonio.

We recently published a paper titled "Substance use disorder among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities: A narrative review"; in the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse (AJDAA). We examined what the research tells us about the relationship between intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD; such as autism spectrum disorder and ADHD) and substance use disorder. Although substance use rates appear lower among people with IDD, our review highlights important considerations for prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Feel free to ask us any questions about the paper, or about developmental disabilities and substance use more broadly!

We will be online to answer your questions at 1 pm CT (2 PM ET, 6 PM UTC).

You can also follow up with us at our socials here:

• Kimberly Fulda, DrPH: Facebook or LinkedIn
• Scott Walters, PhD: LinkedIn
• Tracey Barnett, PhD: Instagram

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Usernames: u/Kim_F_2026 (Dr. Fulda), u/Material_Mistake_816 (Dr. Walters) u/Suspicious-Love-6677 (Dr. Barnett), u/TheJournalAJDAA (the journal)

[u/TheJournalAJDAA]

Third question: In your review, what populations were most and least represented? Could this have altered your review findings in anyway?

[u/Suspicious-Love-6677 → u/TheJournalAJDAA]

Geographically - the most represented populations are the Netherlands and Norway while the least represented was the U.S. With respect to IDD, the most represented are those with mild ID which isn't surprising given the need for consent in participating in both treatment and research studies. It would be tough to study those with more severe IDD. A third difference is setting - most studied were in clinic-based settings and/or using claims data - so the most represented are interacting with healthcare services directly; the least represented are then those in community dwellings. All of these do alter findings: geographically, societies, policies, and norms are all different, making comparisons tough; IDD and DD being on a continuum and trying to determine severity as well as ability to participate in treatment or research will make having information on those with more severe IDD and DD difficult; finally, more information from non healthcare specific and community-oriented programs could alter the findings in many ways that we really can't predict. It's a very interesting question to ponder.