Drug and Alcohol zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Dependence, 31 (1992) 91- 99 Elsevier Scientific Publishers Ireland Ltd. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA 91 Adolescent drug use, health and personality Richard Hammersley, Tara L. Lavelle and Alasdair J.&I. Forsyth Behavioural Sciemes Group, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G I.2 SQQ, Scotland zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedc (UK) (Accepted May 18th, 1992) Four factors have confounded the association between drug use and morbidity: (a) known drug users may be less healthy than unknown drug users; (b) drug users are rarely compared to control subjects; (c) the socio-economic status of drug users predisposes them to ill-health; (d) the personality of drug users predisposes them to ill-health. Here, controlling for these con- founds, in a study of 210 adolescent drug users it was found that subjective ill-health was more strongly related to drug use than was objective ill-health. Drug use was related to neuroticism and psychopathic deviance. Controlling for personality, drug use accounted for little additional variance in health. It is concluded that drug use and health are not strongly related amongst adolescent drug users, although, because of their personalities, drug users tend not to feel well. Implications are discussed for the self-treatment explanation of drug use and for the design of preventative programmes. Key woro!s: drug use; adolescents; personality; health; Scotland Introduction There has been much concern over the health risks associated with illicit drug use, most con- cern being expressed over the misuse of the ‘harder’ drugs - cocaine and opioids. These risks are a major rationale for current drug policies. Studies of groups of known heroin users have indeed found that they had relatively high rates of mortality and morbidity, even before the advent of HIV (e.g., Sells, Chatham and Retka, 1972; Stimson and Oppenheimer, 1982; Stephens and Cottrel, 1972). There are two reasons for this. First, unsterile injection of impure drugs can cause specific physical health problems, in- cluding abscesses, gangrene, fungal, viral (in- cluding HIV and hepatitis) and bacterial infections, risks of overdose and risks of em- bolisms due to the introduction of insoluble mat- ter into the blood (e.g., Blumberg, 1976; Wille, Correspondence to: Richard Hammersley, Behavioural Sciences Group, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G 12 SQQ, Scotland, UK. 1981; Robertson, 1987). None of these problems necessarily apply if drug injection is careful, sterile and only involves the injection of soluble substances. Second, the lifestyle associated with drug misuse is generally unhealthy. Heroin users tend to have a bad diet (Morabia et al., 1989), engage in sexual behaviour which is high-risk for all sexually-transmitted diseases, including HIV (McKegany, Barnard and Watson, 1989; Mor- rison, 1989; Klee et al., 1990) and otherwise generally neglect themselves (e.g., Stimson and Oppenheimer, 1982). It is also plausible that users are likely to be involved in accidents while intoxicated and to be at risk of violent assaults related to the drug trade. Although the in- cidence of these problems has not been record- ed, the frequent appearance of drug users in hospital emergency departments has been noted (e.g. Muga et al., 1990). Finally, cocaine use is occasionally associated with fatality, usually because of heart failure (Wetli, 1987). Generally, cocaine misuse, or misuse of any drug may be associated with unhealthy behaviours. The cited studies have all examined well the 0376~8716/92/$05.00 0 1992 Elsevier Scientific Publishers Ireland Ltd. Printed and Published in Ireland