TY - JOUR
T1 - Use transition between illegal drugs among Brazilian university students
AU - Castaldelli-Maia, João Mauricio
AU - Martins, Silvia S.
AU - De Oliveira, Lúcio Garcia
AU - Van Laar, Margriet
AU - De Andrade, Arthur Guerra
AU - Nicastri, Sergio
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments This work was supported by National Secretariat for Drug Policies (SENAD), Brazil and São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (FAPESP), Brazil. Dr. Martins receives research support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) [grants DA020667 and DA023434] and from the National Institute of Child and Human Development (NICHD) [grant HD060072], USA. Dr. Oliveira receives research support from FAPESP [grant 08/55550-7].
PY - 2014/3
Y1 - 2014/3
N2 - Purpose: The aim of the present study was to test whether the first use of an illicit drug increases the chance of first use of other illicit drugs. Method: The transitions from the first use of a drug to the first use of another drug were analyzed. Comparisons were made between first drug users and non-users. Survival analysis methods were used to compare the cumulative probability of second drug use after adjusting for socio-demographic covariates and the intermediate use of alcohol and/or tobacco. A total of 12,721 Brazilian university students participated in this study. Results: Inhalants and marijuana were used prior to the use of several other drugs, whereas the opposite pattern was not found. Ecstasy was used before other drugs in several instances. Other well-examined drugs, such as amphetamines, cocaine and hallucinogens, were used both before and after other illicit drugs without any marked predominance for either of the two roles. Conclusions: This study supports the role of the use of marijuana and inhalants almost exclusively before the use of other illicit drugs, whereas the use of ecstasy has an opposite role. These roles could be linked to the prevalence of lifetime use and whether individuals were at an earlier or later age during experimentation.
AB - Purpose: The aim of the present study was to test whether the first use of an illicit drug increases the chance of first use of other illicit drugs. Method: The transitions from the first use of a drug to the first use of another drug were analyzed. Comparisons were made between first drug users and non-users. Survival analysis methods were used to compare the cumulative probability of second drug use after adjusting for socio-demographic covariates and the intermediate use of alcohol and/or tobacco. A total of 12,721 Brazilian university students participated in this study. Results: Inhalants and marijuana were used prior to the use of several other drugs, whereas the opposite pattern was not found. Ecstasy was used before other drugs in several instances. Other well-examined drugs, such as amphetamines, cocaine and hallucinogens, were used both before and after other illicit drugs without any marked predominance for either of the two roles. Conclusions: This study supports the role of the use of marijuana and inhalants almost exclusively before the use of other illicit drugs, whereas the use of ecstasy has an opposite role. These roles could be linked to the prevalence of lifetime use and whether individuals were at an earlier or later age during experimentation.
KW - Cox survival regression
KW - Illegal drugs
KW - University students
KW - Use transition
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U2 - 10.1007/s00127-013-0748-1
DO - 10.1007/s00127-013-0748-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 23918195
AN - SCOPUS:84896695288
VL - 49
SP - 385
EP - 394
JO - Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
JF - Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
SN - 0933-7954
IS - 3
ER -