The prevalence of kratom use and association with co-occurring substance use among adolescents: a 2022 Bangkok behavioral surveillance survey, Thailand.

ABSTRACT

Thailand removed kratom from the list of prohibited substances in 2021, possession and consumption of Kratom is now legal. It is prohibited from selling Kratom to anyone under the age of 18 and/or who is pregnant or breastfeeding. While there are benefits from kratom use with few reported adverse effects, escalating dose and increased use frequency raise the risk for toxic events in the setting of polysubstance use or development of a use disorder. We utilized data from the Behavior Surveillance Survey in Bangkok (n = 5,740) to examine the use of kratom with other substances use in the 12 months before the survey. The prevalence of past-year kratom use among students was 9.3% (95%CI = 8.7-9.9), with higher proportions of males (12.4 versus 6.1%, p < 0.001). The factors associated with past 12-month kratom use were academic performance (Medium GPA; AOR = 2.41, 95% CI = 1.76-3.29; Low GPA; AOR = 4.15, 95% CI = 2.94-5.87), close friend use substance (AOR = 1.94, 95% CI = 1.44-2.59), cannabis use (AOR = 6.84, 95% CI = 4.61-10.15), consumed alcohol (AOR = 2.32, 95% CI = 1.77-3.02), smoked conventional cigarettes (AOR = 4.20, 95% CI = 3.16-5.58), used e-cigarettes (AOR = 4.37, 95% CI = 3.30-5.79) used illicit opioids (AOR = 8.13, 95% CI = 4.35-15.18), and other illicit drug use (AOR = 9.15, 95% CI = 3.78-22.14). These findings may be useful for the initial targeting of efforts to reduce adolescent consumption of kratom. Future studies should examine the effect of regulatory policies or other Thai FDA-related policies use of illicit drugs and e-cigarettes on kratom use.