Posting #5- The risk of adolescents suicide across patterns of drug use.

Sarah Rodriguez

BBH 143- Posting #5

6/11/2013

The article that I have chosen that relates to this week’s lectures in class is titled, “The Risk of Adolescents Suicide across Patterns of Drug Use: a Nationally Representative study of High School Students in the United States from 1999 to 2009.” The objective of this article was to show how substance use is linked to suicidal planning and attempts among adolescents. The study analyzed 73,183 high school students by giving them a survey titled Youth Rick Behavior Survey. The substances that the survey asked about were alcohol, cocaine, ecstasy, hallucinogens, heroin, inhalants, marijuana, methamphetamines, steroids, and tobacco. After asking questions about substances, the survey then asked the students about suicide. They measured suicidality in four categories; suicidal ideation, suicide planning, suicide attempts, and several suicide attempts requiring medical attention. Then the survey controlled for potential confounders which were, socio-demographic variables, interpersonal violence, sexual intercourse, and symptoms of depression and eating disorders.

After analyzing all of this information, the survey found that heroin use has the strongest association with suicidal ideations, suicide planning, suicide attempts and severe suicide attempts; followed by methamphetamine users. The substances that had the least effect on suicidal measures are marijuana, alcohol, and tobacco. The overall findings of the study are that any type of substance abuse is a strong risk factor for suicidal thoughts and behaviors among high school students. These risks also show to be increased when factors like interpersonal violence, sexual intercourse, and symptoms of depression are added.

I chose this article not only because it related to the tobacco and opiates lectures that we had in class this week, but also because this is a topic that needs to be more focused on because it is a growing problem in high schools in the United States.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00127-013-0721-z