Mental health and drug use in college students: Should we take action?
J Affect Disord
; 338: 32-40, 2023 10 01.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37245551
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
College students are vulnerable to suffering from anxiety and depression. Moreover, mental disorders can contribute to drug consumption or inappropriate use of prescribed drugs. Studies on this topic in Spanish college students are limited. This work analyses anxiety and depression and psychoactive drug intake pattern in the post-COVID era in college students.METHODS:
An online survey was conducted among college students from UCM (Spain). The survey collected data including demographic, academic student perception, GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scales, and psychoactive substances consumption.RESULTS:
A total of 6798 students were included; 44.1 % (CI95% 42.9 to 45.3) showed symptoms of severe anxiety and 46.5 % (CI95% 45.4 to 47.8) symptoms of severe or moderately severe depression. The perception of these symptoms did not change after returning to face-to-face university classes in the post-COVID19 era. Despite the high percentage of cases with clear symptoms of anxiety and depression, most students never had a diagnosis of mental illnesses [anxiety 69.2 % (CI95% 68.1 to 70.3) and depression 78.1 % (CI95% 77.1 to 79.1)]. Regarding psychoactive substances, valerian, melatonin, diazepam, and lorazepam were the most consumed. The most worrying issue was the consumption of diazepam, 10.8 % (CI95% 9.8 to 11.8), and lorazepam, 7.7 % (CI95% 6.9 to 8.6) without medical prescription. Among illicit drugs, cannabis is the most consumed.LIMITATIONS:
The study was based on an online survey.CONCLUSIONS:
The high prevalence of anxiety and depression aligned with poor medical diagnosis and high intake of psychoactive drugs should not be underestimated. University policies should be implemented to improve the well-being of students.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Contexto em Saúde:
2_ODS3
/
8_ODS3_consumo_sustancias_psicoactivas
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Transtornos Relacionados ao Uso de Substâncias
/
COVID-19
Tipo de estudo:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Qualitative_research
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
J Affect Disord
Ano de publicação:
2023
Tipo de documento:
Article