Attention deficits were studied among 67 consecutive admissions to an adult tertiary care in-patient substance abuse unit. Fifty-four patients completed the testing; of these 15 were excluded due to confounding variables. The majority of the remaining 39 subjects had evidence of current and/or childhood attention dysfunction. There was no correlation with current performance and childhood recollection of dysfunction even when the effect of gender, race and alcohol abuse were taken into account. There are intriguing educational and therapeutic implications of the similarities between cognitive impairments of newly sober substance abusers and adults with persistence of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).