Measurement of Impulsivity and Its Role in Drug Use Behaviours and Related Health, Harm and Treatment Outcomes Among People Who Use Illicit Drugs-A Scoping Review.

Authors

Iuliia Makarenko, Amani Mahroug, Didier Jutras-Aswad, Sarah Larney, Valérie Martel-Laferrière, Julie Bruneau

Published in

International journal of mental health and addiction. Volume 24. Issue 4. Pages 3165-3209. Epub Sep 27, 2025.

Abstract

Impulsivity is closely implicated in substance use disorders; however, its definition and assessment among people who use illicit drugs (PWUD) are lacking consistency. This scoping review maps the existing evidence on how impulsivity has been defined, measured, and linked to drug use behaviours and consequences. A systematic search of manuscripts (1990-2025) was conducted across multiple databases, identifying 267 eligible studies. Behavioural tasks (76%) were more commonly used to measure impulsivity compared to self-reported tools (44%). The most frequently used behavioural tasks included the Iowa Gambling Task (26%) (cognitive, decision-making and risk-taking impulsivity) and the Go No-Go Task (23%) (motor impulsivity). Studies relying on self-reported measures primarily used the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (N = 86, 73%). Many studies assessed the association between impulsivity and drug use patterns (39%) and treatment-related variables (40%), with fewer examining risk behaviours (13%) and drug-related consequences (23%). Despite growing research, inconsistencies in impulsivity measurements hinder interpretation and comparability of findings. A universal measurement approach is needed to assess impulsivity in PWUD.

PMID:
42634611
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 24 Aug 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.