Research suggests that non-medical prescription drug (NMPD) use is becoming increasingly prevalent, particularly among adolescents. A critical step towards developing effective intervention efforts requires identifying adolescents who are at risk for NMPD use. An extensive literature suggests that both adolescents and adults with elevated anxiety sensitivity (AS) are at greater risk for problematic substance use, and a small body of work has identified similar links with NMPD use specifically among adults. However, most of this literature combines all prescription drugs into a single category, and no work has evaluated the relation between AS and NMPD use among adolescents. The current study endeavors to further this area of research by examining the relation between AS (overall and subscales) and NMPD use among adolescents. The project evaluated 276 adolescents (age 9-19 years) enrolled in a residential treatment program on level of AS, including sub-dimensions (i.e., cognitive, physical, and social), and NMPD use across three categories of drugs: analgesic (e.g., Vicodin®), anxiolytic (e.g., Xanax®), and stimulant (e.g., Adderall®). A series of logistic regression models indicated that overall AS predicted nonmedical analgesic use, but not anxiolytic/sedative or stimulant use. A closer investigation of the AS subscales demonstrated that only the AS social subscale significantly predicted nonmedical analgesic and anxiolytic/sedative use. These results suggest that AS is related to NMPD use among adolescents, highlighting the need for future work to disaggregate the assessment of NMPD use into specific drug classes and explore the subscale dimensions of AS.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc1707265 |
| Date | 08 1900 |
| Creators | Carey, Caitlyn |
| Contributors | Blumenthal, Heidemarie, Guillot, Casey, Kelly, Kimberly |
| Publisher | University of North Texas |
| Source Sets | University of North Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | v, 34 pages, Text |
| Rights | Public, Carey, Caitlyn, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved. |
Page generated in 0.0125 seconds