Age of onset of drug use as a factor in drug and other disorders.

The family background characteristics of 756 male heroin users were examined to determine the effects of selected family risk factors on the timing of onset of emancipation and drug use, on pre-addiction incarcerations and on educational attainment. These risk factors included family size, birth order, socioeconomic status, family drug use, parental history of alcoholism, parental absence, and family history of incarceration. The two measures of age of emancipation were age on leaving school and age on leaving home. Age of onset of regular use was measured for the following drugs: tobacco, alcohol, marijuana and heroin. Incarceration measures included the occurrence of juvenile detention and the time spent in prison prior to first addiction. Educational attainment was a score on a California State achievement test. Larger family size, higher birth order, parental alcoholism and parental absence were found to have a cumulatively negative effect on how young the respondents were when they first left home and when they first used particular drugs regularly, on their level of tested academic achievement, and on their probability of juvenile detention. Implications for social policies designed to prevent drug abuse are discussed.

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An Australian Twin Study of Cannabis and Other Illicit Drug Use and Misuse, and Other Psychopathology

Twin Research and Human Genetics ◽

10.1017/thg.2012.41 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 15 (5) ◽

pp. 631-641 ◽

Cited By ~ 45

Author(s):

Michael T. Lynskey ◽

Arpana Agrawal ◽

Anjali Henders ◽

Elliot C. Nelson ◽

Pamela A. F. Madden ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drug Use ◽

Large Scale ◽

Illicit Drugs ◽

Illicit Drug ◽

Age Of Onset ◽

Cannabis Use ◽

Drug Use Disorders ◽

Illicit Drug Abuse ◽

Highly Correlated ◽

Adult Twins

Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug throughout the developed world and there is consistent evidence of heritable influences on multiple stages of cannabis involvement including initiation of use and abuse/dependence. In this paper, we describe the methodology and preliminary results of a large-scale interview study of 3,824 young adult twins (born 1972–1979) and their siblings. Cannabis use was common with 75.2% of males and 64.7% of females reporting some lifetime use of cannabis while 24.5% of males and 11.8% of females reported meeting criteria for DSM-IV cannabis abuse or dependence. Rates of other drug use disorders and common psychiatric conditions were highly correlated with extent of cannabis involvement and there was consistent evidence of heritable influences across a range of cannabis phenotypes including early (≤15 years) opportunity to use (h2 = 72%), early (≤16 years) onset use (h2 = 80%), using cannabis 11+ times lifetime (h2 = 76%), and DSM abuse/dependence (h2 = 72%). Early age of onset of cannabis use was strongly associated with increased rates of subsequent use of other illicit drugs and with illicit drug abuse/dependence; further analyses indicating that some component of this association may have been mediated by increasing exposure to and opportunity to use other illicit drugs.

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Making Sense of Heterogeneity in the Influence of Childhood Abuse, Mental Health, and Drug Use on Women’s Offending Pathways

Criminal Justice and Behavior ◽

10.1177/0093854818776687 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 45 (10) ◽

pp. 1565-1587 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Lisa Broidy ◽

Jason Payne ◽

Alex R. Piquero

Keyword(s):

Drug Use ◽

Life Course ◽

Childhood Abuse ◽

Internalizing Symptoms ◽

Age Of Onset ◽

Making Sense ◽

Pathways Model ◽

Female Offending ◽

Using Data ◽

The Life Course

Building from the developmental and life course literature and the feminist pathways literature, we aim to detail when and how exposure to abuse in childhood shapes female offending trajectories. Using data from 470 female offenders in Australia, our analyses assess whether internalizing symptoms and drug use help explain the link between early abuse and later offending among females. We then examine whether these links are most acute for females who onset early and evidence chronic involvement in offending. In support of the feminist pathways model, we find evidence for a pathway from early abuse to internalizing symptoms to drug use and then offending. In addition, and in line with the life course literature, we also find important differences in how these risks unfold across women, depending particularly on age of onset and offending chronicity. We reflect on the implications of our findings for theory and intervention with respect to female offending.

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Does the ‘gateway’ matter? Associations between the order of drug use initiation and the development of drug dependence in the National Comorbidity Study Replication

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291708003425 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 39 (1) ◽

pp. 157-167 ◽

Cited By ~ 71

Author(s):

L. Degenhardt ◽

W. T. Chiu ◽

K. Conway ◽

L. Dierker ◽

M. Glantz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drug Use ◽

Drug Dependence ◽

Illicit Drugs ◽

Mental Health Problems ◽

Age Of Onset ◽

Household Survey ◽

Composite International Diagnostic Interview ◽

Externalizing Disorders ◽

World Health ◽

Drug Use Initiation

BackgroundThe ‘gateway’ pattern of drug initiation describes a normative sequence, beginning with alcohol and tobacco use, followed by cannabis, then other illicit drugs. Previous work has suggested that ‘violations’ of this sequence may be predictors of later problems but other determinants were not considered. We have examined the role of pre-existing mental disorders and sociodemographics in explaining the predictive effects of violations using data from the US National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R).MethodThe NCS-R is a nationally representative face-to-face household survey of 9282 English-speaking respondents aged 18 years and older that used the World Health Organization (WHO) Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) to assess DSM-IV mental and substance disorders. Drug initiation was estimated using retrospective age-of-onset reports and ‘violations’ defined as inconsistent with the normative initiation order. Predictors of violations were examined using multivariable logistic regressions. Discrete-time survival analysis was used to see whether violations predicted progression to dependence.ResultsGateway violations were largely unrelated to later dependence risk, with the exception of small increases in risk of alcohol and other illicit drug dependence for those who initiated use of other illicit drugs before cannabis. Early-onset internalizing disorders were predictors of gateway violations, and both internalizing and externalizing disorders increased the risks of dependence among users of all drugs.ConclusionsDrug use initiation follows a strong normative pattern, deviations from which are not strongly predictive of later problems. By contrast, adolescents who have already developed mental health problems are at risk for deviations from the normative sequence of drug initiation and for the development of dependence.

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Hispanic Youth and Illicit Drug Use: Assessing the Relevance of Risk and Protective Factors

Crime & Delinquency ◽

10.1177/0011128718814859 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 65 (10) ◽

pp. 1422-1454 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Lidia E. Nuño ◽

Veronica M. Herrera ◽

David E. Choate ◽

Meagan Koontz

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Drug Use ◽

Illicit Drug ◽

Age Of Onset ◽

Illicit Drug Use ◽

The United States ◽

National Sample ◽

Hispanic Youth ◽

Social Development Model ◽

Reported Data

Although rates of illicit drug use in the United States have remained stable within the last decade, the age-of-onset for drug use is decreasing for certain substances, and the United States still accounts for the highest rates of overall drug use. In a recent national sample, an estimated 19.8 million users ages 12 years and older were identified. Preventative efforts that target adolescents often neglect to consider differences among racial/ethnic groups. Applying the Social Development Model (SDM), the current study examines the likelihood of drug use among Hispanic youth. Self-reported data ( n = 37,445) from a statewide, school-based sample collected in 2008 are used. Results suggest that the SDM is a promising framework for assessing Hispanic youths’ likelihood of engaging in illicit drug use.

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Age of onset of drug use and its association with DSM-IV drug abuse and dependence: Results from the national longitudinal alcohol epidemiologic survey

Journal of Substance Abuse ◽

10.1016/s0899-3289(99)80131-x ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 163-173 ◽

Cited By ~ 336

Author(s):

Bridget F. Grant ◽

Deborah A. Dawson

Keyword(s):

Drug Abuse ◽

Drug Use ◽

Age Of Onset ◽

Epidemiologic Survey ◽

Iv Drug Abuse ◽

Dsm Iv

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Early age of onset of drug use in Paraguayan children and adolescents: a public health challenge

Medicina Clínica y Social ◽

10.52379/mcs.v2i2.56 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 102-107

Author(s):

Julio Torales ◽

Israel González ◽

João Castaldelli-Maia ◽

Marcela Waisman ◽

Antonio Ventriglio

Keyword(s):

Substance Use ◽

Drug Use ◽

Age Of Onset ◽

Social Adaptation ◽

Early Age ◽

Childhood And Adolescence ◽

Illegal Drugs ◽

Health Related ◽

Salud Mental ◽

Uso De Sustancias

La edad de inicio del consumo de drogas legales e ilegales es una variable crucial en el campo de la salud mental. Permite a clínicos y a investigadores de todo el mundo intentar predecir el riesgo vital de trastornos por uso de sustancias, enfermedad mental y adaptación social, y a diseñar estrategias de prevención e intervenciones precoces para hacer frente a estas entidades. El uso de drogas legales o ilegales durante la infancia y la adolescencia ha sido asociado a un vasto rango de malos resultados por distintos autores. El efecto del uso de sustancias al parecer incluye no sólo resultados relacionados con la salud, sino que posee también implicancias sociales negativas a largo plazo que afectan el sustento de los individuos. El inicio temprano del uso de drogas legales e ilegales es una epidemia social en Paraguay (Sudamérica). En este breve artículo, nuestro objetivo es presentar los pocos estudios realizados en el país que muestran una edad extremadamente temprana de inicio del consumo de drogas y proporcionar algunos argumentos sobre por qué estos datos deberían ser motivo de preocupación para los responsables de la formulación de políticas en el país. Palabras clave: Edad de inicio; Uso de drogas; Niños; Adolescentes. ABSTRACT The age of onset of legal and illegal drugs use is a crucial variable in the mental health field. It enables clinicians and researchers across the world to try to predict the lifetime risk of substance use disorders, mental illness and social adaptation, and to tailor prevention strategies and early interventions to address these entities. The use of legal or illegal drugs during childhood and adolescence has been linked to a vast range of bad outcomes by different authors. The effect of substance use seems to include not only health-related issues, but it also has long-term negative social implications that affect the livelihood of the individuals. Early initiation of legal and illegal drug use is a social epidemic in Paraguay (South America). In this brief piece, we aim to present the few studies done in the country showing an extremely early age of onset of drug use and to provide some arguments for why this data should be of concern for policy makers in the country. Keywords: Age of onset; Drug use; Children; Adolescents.

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Overlap of heritable influences between cannabis use disorder, frequency of use and opportunity to use cannabis: trivariate twin modelling and implications for genetic design

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291718000478 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 48 (16) ◽

pp. 2786-2793 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Lindsey A. Hines ◽

Katherine I. Morley ◽

Fruhling Rijsdijk ◽

John Strang ◽

Arpana Agrawal ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drug Use ◽

Age Of Onset ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Cannabis Use ◽

Genetic Influences ◽

Shared Environment ◽

Cannabis Use Disorder ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Cannabis Abuse ◽

Frequency Of Use

AbstractBackgroundThe genetic component of Cannabis Use Disorder may overlap with influences acting more generally on early stages of cannabis use. This paper aims to determine the extent to which genetic influences on the development of cannabis abuse/dependence are correlated with those acting on the opportunity to use cannabis and frequency of use.MethodsA cross-sectional study of 3303 Australian twins, measuring age of onset of cannabis use opportunity, lifetime frequency of cannabis use, and lifetime DSM-IV cannabis abuse/dependence. A trivariate Cholesky decomposition estimated additive genetic (A), shared environment (C) and unique environment (E) contributions to the opportunity to use cannabis, the frequency of cannabis use, cannabis abuse/dependence, and the extent of overlap between genetic and environmental factors associated with each phenotype.ResultsVariance components estimates were A = 0.64 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.58–0.70] and E = 0.36 (95% CI 0.29–0.42) for age of opportunity to use cannabis, A = 0.74 (95% CI 0.66–0.80) and E = 0.26 (95% CI 0.20–0.34) for cannabis use frequency, and A = 0.78 (95% CI 0.65–0.88) and E = 0.22 (95% CI 0.12–0.35) for cannabis abuse/dependence. Opportunity shares 45% of genetic influences with the frequency of use, and only 17% of additive genetic influences are unique to abuse/dependence from those acting on opportunity and frequency.ConclusionsThere are significant genetic contributions to lifetime cannabis abuse/dependence, but a large proportion of this overlaps with influences acting on opportunity and frequency of use. Individuals without drug use opportunity are uninformative, and studies of drug use disorders must incorporate individual exposure to accurately identify aetiology.

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Oral Pharmacotherapy of Childhood Movement Disorders

Journal of Child Neurology ◽

10.1177/0883073803018001s0601 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 18 (1_suppl) ◽

pp. S40-S49 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Terence S. Edgar

Keyword(s):

Drug Use ◽

Movement Disorders ◽

Age Of Onset ◽

Muscle Tone ◽

Clinical Manifestations ◽

Extrapyramidal Disorders ◽

Neurologic Impairment ◽

Adults And Children

Movement disorders, a common problem in children with neurologic impairment, are receiving increasing clinical attention. The differences in movement disorders between adults and children are striking; presentation is frequently insidious and may be characterized by mild hypotonia. The clinical manifestations of extrapyramidal disorders are profoundly influenced by the age of onset. The conditions reviewed in this article are expressed clinically by the occurrence of abnormalities of movement and posture, often in association with disturbances of muscle tone. This article reviews empiric drug use and recommendations for childhood movement disorders. (J Child Neurol 2003;18:S40—S49).

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