Outcome of drug abuse in a 20-year follow-up study of drug-experimenting schoolchildren in Finland

Abstract

The fate of 119 drug-experimenting schoolchildren who had been interrogated by the narcotics police of Helsinki, Finland, during 1 year, 1971-72, was studied 20 years later. The material was divided in two groups: those with a favourable outcome (n = 49) and those with a poor outcome (n =70). Nineteen had died. Criteria for poor outcome were death, prison sentence, psychiatric hospitalization, or continuation of crimes. The group with a favourable outcome was alive, did not have prison sentences or psychiatric hospitalizations, and had not been caught by the police after the initial phase of the study. Offences against property in early adolescence and intravenous drug use were predictive factors for imprisonment, psychiatric hospitalization, and death. A poor atmosphere at home and the occupation of the father as labourer were predictive factors for imprisonment, psychiatric hospitalization, and death for boys. For girls low education was predictive of imprisonment and psychiatric hospitalization. Drug use in adolescence is a signal of greater risk for adjustment problems in later life.