Abstract
The aim of the present study was to provide a list of psychological variables likely to explain cannabis abuse among adolescents and young adults based on the following psychological risk factors: anxiety, depression, difficulty in describing feelings, difficulty in identifying feelings, and external oriented thought. The analysis was based on the multiple logistic regression technique; the step-wise procedure showed that only anxiety, depression, and difficulty in describing feelings were retained in the final model. Following this, additive versus interactive models under different assumptions between the three independent variables were also assessed. The key findings of this study are twofold: (a) anxiety was revealed to be the primary risk factor for cannabis abuse and (b) no interaction between the aforementioned factors proved to be significantly informative in explaining high risk cannabis abuse. Findings were discussed in the context of the current knowledge of the relationship between anxious and depressive symptoms and higher risk of substance abuse and dependence.
Highlights
Given their capacity to actively operate on our central nervous system, psychoactive drugs are known to alter behavior, cognition, mood, and consciousness
Initial sample of 268 students (44 males, mean age = 23 years, SD = 6.4; 224 females, mean age = 22 years, SD = 5.2) from the University of Provence volunteered to participate in our study. They were presented with a series of self-report questionnaires including: CAGE-Alcohol, Cannabis Abuse Screening Test (CAST) and Fagerström
The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) has been extensively used in primary care and in general population surveys
Summary
Given their capacity to actively operate on our central nervous system, psychoactive drugs are known to alter behavior, cognition, mood, and consciousness The abuse of these substances can lead to psychological addiction and vice versa as a result of the stimulation of the brain’s dopaminergic reward system. Cannabis is one of the most used substances by teenagers and young adults. 42% among the 18-64 year-old have already experienced cannabis use and 11% report having tried it at least once during the last year. Another interesting fact is that 2.2% are identified as users at high risk of abuse or dependence. Men were reported to be significantly more likely to use cannabis than women and this gap increases with higher levels of use
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