Abstract
Aim of the studyTo determine whether the following symptoms: depressive symptoms, eating disorder symptoms among adolescents in Cracow secondary schools are associated with an increased risk of psychoactive substance use.Subject or material and methodsA representative sample of the population of Krakow secondary school pupils was tested. A two-stage draw method identified a group of 2034 2nd form pupils of all types of secondary schools: grammar schools, technical schools and vocational schools (17-year olds). They were tested using the following screening questionnaires: Beck Depression Scale, EAT-26 eating disorders scale and author’s drug questionnaire.ResultsThe prevalence of depressive symptoms among boys and girls is associated with an increased alcohol use, cigarette smoking and drug use. All of the relationships are statistically significant in both sexes. 41.7% of depressive boys admit to smoking, versus. only 32.6% in the non-depressive group. The relationships are statistically significant in both sexes. The prevalence of eating disorder symptoms among boys and girls is associated with a higher alcohol use, cigarette smoking, and drug use. Compared with a group of young people without eating disorder symptoms, the relationships are of statistical significance.DiscussionComorbidity of the following symptoms was found: depressive symptoms, eating disorder symptoms and symptoms of psychoactive substance use.ConclusionsThe presence of depressive symptoms increases the risk of the use of psychoactive substances, especially alcohol and tobacco, to a lesser extent – drugs, both in the boys and in the girls. The presence of eating disorder symptoms increases the risk of smoking and drug use among both boys and girls.
Highlights
Boys chi2 = 6.518 df=4 p = 0.164; girls chi2 = 11.638 df=4 p = 0.020 ND – non declaring depressive symptoms, D – declaring depressive symptom of depressive students, boys (41.7%) and girls (46.7%) alike, admitted to smoking cigarettes than did non-depressive ones
The study confirms the comorbidity of declared depressive symptoms, eating disorders and the use of certain psychoactive substances in the population of a large university town
It was found that the presence of depressive symptoms declared among boys and girls is associated with higher percentage of alcohol users (74.8% in depressive boys and 65.9% in the group of depressive girls, respectively), smokers (42.7% and. 46.7% ) and drug users (29.0% and 18.6%)
Summary
The presence of depressive symptoms increases the risk of the use of psychoactive substances, especially alcohol and tobacco, to a lesser extent – drugs, both in the boys and in the girls. Kandel and colleagues (1997) showed that the prevalence of depression increases from about 5% in young non-drinking people to 23.8% in adolescents who consume alcohol at least weekly, to 24.1% in adolescents admitting to the consumption of illicit drugs at least once year They proved the comorbidity of mood disorders with a wide range of psychoactive substance use or abuse intensity, from recent use of cigarettes to occasional use of illicit substances [9, 8]. In several studies among adolescents, increased tobacco use was found, as well as the use of illegal substances and alcohol, in the group of patients with symptoms from the bulimia spectrum [11, 12, 13]
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