Numerous consequences of sexual assault have been identified, including psychological consequences such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and health-risk behaviors such as substance misuse. Previous research has indicated that survivors of sexual assault may engage in substance misuse (i.e. alcohol and other illicit and prescription drug use) in attempt to suppress negative thoughts, memories, and flashbacks of the assault. The present study seeks to expand on and examine health-risk behaviors among undergraduate college women after the experience of sexual assault. Although many researchers have focused on the use of alcohol following sexual assault, less have studied non-medical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD) as an alternative method of maladaptive coping. NMUPD has recently been identified as the fastest rising recreational substance among college populations. With NMUPD becoming a norm among college students in recreational settings, exploring NMUPD for alternative uses seems like the next logical step in research. This study views sexual assault on a continuum starting from unwanted sexual contact and ending in completed rape. This study aims to bridge the gap in research by attempting to connect the risky behavior of NMUPD to coping with any experience on the sexual assault continuum among college undergraduate women. Participants with and without a history of sexual assault were recruited for the present study. Participants completed a measure of sexual assault history and severity, along with questionnaires assessing current alcohol, marijuana, and NMUPD use

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Background:Non-medical use of prescription opioids (NMUPO) has become a clear threat to public health. Young adults (aged 18 to 25) have a high risk of NMUPO. My prior work on Chinese undergraduates indicates a high prevalence of lifetime NMUPO (49.2%). Health behavior theories propose that outcome expectancies are robust psychosocial determinants of substance use. Literature has identified the influence of outcome expectancies on alcohol and drug use. However, the role of outcome expectancies in NMUPO in China is unknown, and a scarcity of a valid measures for NMUPO outcome expectancies may be a barrier. Our previous research also found an association of cultural orientation with NMUPD in Chinese college students, implying that cultural orientation may affect NMUPD-related perceptions, such as outcome expectancies. The purposes of this study were to (1) conduct initial work to develop and validate an NMUPO outcome expectancies scale (NMUPOES) for Chinese college students; (2) examine the association of cultural orientation with factors identified in NMUPOES. Method: Partial data (n = 202) derived from a bigger online dataset collected from 849 undergraduates (average age = 19.65) at two universities in Beijing and Macau in Jan-April 2017 was used in this study. Participants completed the NMUPOES and reported their past-3-month NMUPO and cultural orientation. Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling were employed to test the study hypotheses. Results: Findings suggested four subscales in the 50-item NMUPOES (i.e., social enhancement and tension reduction, academic enhancement, physiological discomfort, and guilt and dependence) and two higher-order factors (i.e., positive expectancies and negative expectancies). All subscales were positively correlated and had good internal consistency. The negative expectancies scale was negatively associated with past-3-month NMUPO. No significant association was found between cultural orientation and the two expectancy factors. Conclusion:NMUPOES is a psychometrically appropriate measure of NMUPO expectancies for Chinese college students. Future research may validate the NMUPOES using a large sample size in both clinical and non-clinical populations in China. An intervention program tailored to outcome expectancies may be beneficial to reduce the risk of NMUPO in Chinese college students.

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Increasing understanding of the risk and protective factors for adolescent nonmedical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD) could inform prevention efforts. Several correlates have been identified, including parental factors, perceptions about use and accessibility, social norms, and age. However, these constructs have rarely been simultaneously examined using paired data from parents and adolescents. We aimed to examine the relative influence of these correlates among dyads (N = 349) of mothers and adolescent daughters. Using multiple logistic regression, daughters’ past NMUPD and inclination for future NMUPD were regressed onto descriptive norms for friend use, perceived drug accessibility and risk of harm from use, daughter age, mothers’ disapproval about use, mothers’ past NMUPD and inclination for future NMUPD, and the mother-daughter relationship quality. Akaike weights and lasso regressions were also estimated to evaluate the relative importance of each correlate. Higher descriptive norms for friend use, older age, and mothers’ inclination for NMUPD were risk factors for daughters’ NMUPD, while a closer mother-daughter relationship and mothers’ disapproving attitudes towards NMUPD were protective factors. The three analysis approaches were corroborative. Results suggest friend descriptive norms, mother-daughter relationship quality, and mothers’ attitudes about NMUPD are important prevention targets.

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Background: Non-medical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD) refers to the use of prescription drugs which are traditionally utilized to manage pain or treat psychiatric problems but without a doctor’s prescription. In 2010, an investigation by the Substance Use and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) revealed that 5.3% of young adults (18 to 25-year-olds) in the United States reported past-month NMUPD. NMUPD has become a growing concern owing to associations with consequences such as college dropout, poor academic achievement, and health jeopardizing behaviors. College students' NMUPD has been well documented in the United States. Limited studies, however, have been conducted among college students in China. The purposes of this study are to examine the prevalence and motives of NMUPD among college students in China, and to assess its relationship with stress (i.e., perceived stress and traumatic events), mental health problems (depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)), utilization of healthcare, cultural orientation, and protective factors (i.e., resilience and future orientation). Methods: In Jan-April 2017, online data were collected using SONA system from a total of 720 undergraduates at Beijing Normal University (BNU) and University of Macau (UM) with an average age of 19.65. All participants reported their nonmedical use of prescription drugs (i.e., opioids, sedatives, stimulants, and anxiolytics) in their lifetime and the past three months, stress, mental health, utilization of healthcare, cultural orientation, and protective factors. Spearman’s rank-order corrections and logistic regression were employed for statistical analyses. Results: Findings indicate that 41.2% of Chinese students reported taking prescription drugs without a doctor’s prescription. The most commonly misused prescription drugs were opioids (40.5% lifetime use, 31.8% past-three-months use), followed by sedatives (1.8% lifetime, 0.8% past 3 months), anxiolytics (0.9% lifetime,0 .3% past three months), and stimulants (0.2% lifetime, 0% past three months). Bivariate analyses suggest significantly positive correlations of lifetime NMUPD with mental health problems (anxiety and PTSD), cultural orientation (individualism and collectivism), and utilization of healthcare (frequency of healthcare use, time spent for healthcare, and money spent for healthcare). Similar results were found in terms of past-three-month NMUPD. The results of logistic regressions indicate the significant association of lifetime NMUPD with individualism of cultural orientation, and frequency of healthcare use. Specially, individualism, frequency of healthcare use, and time spent for healthcare were found to be associated with lifetime opioid misuse, and depression was significantly associated with sedative misuse. Resilience was negatively associated with lifetime sedative misuse. Frequency of healthcare use was also found to be positively associated with past-three-month opioid misuse. Conclusion: Utilization of healthcare, cultural orientation, and mental health problems appear to be the factors associated with NMUPD among college students at BNU and UM. More discussion is needed in Chinese society about regulation of prescription drug use. Future culturally-tailored prevention intervention programs may be beneficial to reduce the risk of NMUPD among Chinese college students.

Lifetime prevalence estimates of psychotropic medicine use as well as prevalence of DSM-IV prescription drug use disorders from the baseline investigation of the Early Developmental Stages of Psychopathology (EDSP) Study are presented. Use of prescription medication at some time in their life was reported by 27.4% of the respondents. Illicit use of prescription drugs, which means an intake without medical legitimation, was reported by 4.5% of the sample. The findings suggest that abuse of and dependence on prescription drugs, with most cases reporting polysubstance use, is quite rare in the 14- to 24-year-olds. DSM-IV abuse was more prevalent than dependence (0.5 vs. 0.3%). In general, women reported higher prevalence rates of prescription drug use, whereas men reported higher prevalence rates of prescription drug disorders. This result suggests that men have a higher risk to develop a substance-use-related disorder.

L’émergence de l’utilisation du méthylphénidate (MPH; Ritalin) par des étudiants universitaires afin d’améliorer leur concentration et leurs performances universitaires suscite l’intérêt du public et soulève d’importants débats éthiques auprès des spécialistes. Les différentes perspectives sur l’amélioration des performances cognitives représentent une dimension importante des défis sociaux et éthiques autour d’un tel phénomène et méritent d’être élucidées. Ce mémoire vise à examiner les discours présents dans les reportages internationaux de presse populaire, les discours en bioéthique et en en santé publique sur le thème de l’utilisation non médicale du méthylphénidate. Cette recherche a permis d’identifier et d’analyser des « lacunes » dans les perspectives éthiques, sociales et scientifiques de l’utilisation non médicale du méthylphénidate pour accroître la performance cognitive d’individus en santé. Une analyse systématique du contenu des discours sur l’utilisation non médicale du méthylphénidate pour accroître la performance cognitive a identifié des paradigmes divergents employés pour décrire l’utilisation non médicale du méthylphénidate et discuter ses conséquences éthiques. Les paradigmes « choix de mode de vie », « abus de médicament » et « amélioration de la cognition » sont présents dans les discours de la presse populaire, de la bioéthique et de la santé publique respectivement. Parmi les principales différences entre ces paradigmes, on retrouve : la description de l’utilisation non médicale d’agents neuropharmacologiques pour l’amélioration des performances, les risques et bénéfices qui y sont associés, la discussion d’enjeux éthiques et sociaux et des stratégies de prévention et les défis associés à l’augmentation de la prévalence de ce phénomène. La divergence de ces paradigmes reflète le pluralisme des perceptions de l’utilisation non médicale d’agents neuropharmacologiques Nos résultats suggèrent la nécessité de débats autour de l’amélioration neuropharmacologique afin de poursuivre l’identification des enjeux et de développer des approches de santé publique cohérentes. / The non-medical use of neuropharmaceuticals has sparked ethical debates. For example, there is mounting evidence that methylphenidate (MPH; Ritalin) is being used by healthy university students to improve concentration, alertness, and academic performance, a phenomenon known as cognitive enhancement. The different perspectives on the ethics of cognitive enhancement represent an important dimension of the social and ethical challenges related to such practices but have yet to be examined thoroughly. This thesis aimed to assess existing positive and negative reports in international print media, bioethics literature, and public health literature on the use of MPH to identify and analyze gaps in the ethical, social, and scientific perspectives about the non-medical use of MPH for cognitive enhancement in healthy individuals. A systematic content analysis of discourses on the non-medical use of methylphenidate for cognitive enhancement identified divergent frameworks employed to describe the non-medical use of methylphenidate and discuss its ethical implications: The frameworks of “lifestyle choice”, “prescription drug abuse” and “cognitive enhancement” are present in print media, bioethics, and public health discourses respectively. Important differences between frameworks include the description of the non-medical use of neuropharmaceuticals for cognitive enhancement, associated risks and benefits, discussion of ethical and social issues surrounding the phenomenon and the prevention strategies and challenges to the widespread use of neuropharmaceuticals for cognitive enhancement. Diverging frameworks reflect pluralism in perceptions if the non-medical use of neuropharmaceuticals for cognitive enhancement. At this time, unacknowledged pluralism and implicit assumptions about cognitive enhancement may impede public health interventions and ethics discussions.