RT Journal Article
T1 The Use of Non-Prescribed Prescription Drugs and Substance Use Among College Students: A 9-Year Follow-Up Cohort Study
A1 Busto Miramontes, Alicia
A1 Moure Rodríguez, Lucía
A1 Díaz Geada, Ainara
A1 Carbia, Carina
A1 Cadaveira Mahía, Fernando
A1 Caamaño Isorna, Francisco
K1 Alcohol drinking in college
K1 Cannabis
K1 Use of non-prescribed prescription drugs
K1 Tobacco
K1 Young adult
AB The use of non-prescribed prescription drugs (NPPD) is common in post-modern societies and a significant proportion of youth consume NPPD concomitantly to other drugs. We studied the prevalence of this consumption among university students in Spain, and its relationship to different patterns of alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis use. A cohort study among university students (n=1,380) (2005–2015) was carried out. Students completed self-administered questionnaires at initial (n=1,363, 98.7%), at 2 years (n=875, 75%) and 9 years of follow-up (n=415, 30.5%). Consumption of medicines (last 15 days), risky alcohol consumption (RC), heavy episodic drinking (HED), and tobacco and cannabis use were measured. Multilevel logistic regressions for repeated measures were generated using consumption of medicines with or without medical prescription as dependent variables. Prevalence of RC, HED, tobacco and cannabis had significant reductions during the follow-up. The use of NPPD increased over time, from 35.5% and 33.3% at 18 and 22 years old, respectively, to 49.6% at 27 years old. The highest rates were found among cannabis, tobacco, RC and HED users. For females, cannabis and RC constitute signitifant risk factors for use of NPPD. Conversely, for males, tobacco and cannabis were risk factors for such use of medicines. Later onset of alcohol consumption constitutes a protective factor for females. Our results reveal high prevalence of NPDD among university students. Those who consume NPPD are -at the same time- more likely to be alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis users than those who take medication under prescription. Preventive strategies should be reinforced and focused on this target population to decrease these high levels of poly-consumption
PB Frontiers Media
SN 1664-1078
YR 2020
FD 2020
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/26705
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/26705
LA eng
NO Busto Miramontes A, Moure-Rodriguez L, Diaz-Geada A, Carbia C, Cadaveira F and Caamaño-Isorna F (2020) The Use of Non-Prescribed Prescription Drugs and Substance Use Among College Students: A 9-Year Follow-Up Cohort Study. Front. Psychiatry 11:880
NO Funding for this study was provided by the Plan Nacional sobre Drogas (Spain) (2005/PN014) and the Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (Spain) (PI15/00165). CC has been funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program with the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant No. 754535
DS Minerva
RD 24 abr 2026