Adolescent drug use, health and personality

Four factors have confounded the association between drug use and morbidity: (a) known drug users may be less healthy than unknown drug users; (b) drug users are rarely compared to control subjects; (c) the socio-economic status of drug users predisposes them to ill-health; (d) the personality of dr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Drug and alcohol dependence 1992-10, Vol.31 (1), p.91-99
Main Authors: Hammersley, Richard, Lavelle, Tara L., Forsyth, Alasdair J.M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Addictive behaviors
Adolescent
adolescents
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Alcoholism - epidemiology
Alcoholism - psychology
Attitude to Health
Biological and medical sciences
Cross-Sectional Studies
Drug abusers
drug use
Factors
Female
Health
Health Status
Humans
Incidence
Male
Medical sciences
Personality
Personality Development
Personality Inventory
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Psychotropic Drugs - adverse effects
Scotland
Scotland - epidemiology
Street Drugs - adverse effects
Substance-Related Disorders - epidemiology
Substance-Related Disorders - psychology
Young people
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Summary:Four factors have confounded the association between drug use and morbidity: (a) known drug users may be less healthy than unknown drug users; (b) drug users are rarely compared to control subjects; (c) the socio-economic status of drug users predisposes them to ill-health; (d) the personality of drug users predisposes them to ill-health. Here, controlling for these confounds, in a study of 210 adolescent drug users it was found that subjective ill-health was more strongly related to drug use than was objective ill-health. Drug use was related to neuroticism and psychopathic deviance. Controlling for personality, drug use accounted for little additional variance in health. It is concluded that drug use and health are not strongly related amongst adolescent drug users, although, because of their personalities, drug users tend not to feel well. Implications are discussed for the self-treatment explanation of drug use and for the design of preventative programmes.
ISSN:0376-8716
1879-0046
DOI:10.1016/0376-8716(92)90013-3