Polysubstance Use Patterns in Underground Rave Attenders: A Cluster Analysis

Abstract

Drug use in mainstream rave parties has been widely documented in a large number of studies. However, not much is known about drug use in underground raves. The purpose of this study is to find out the polysubstance use patterns at underground raves. Two hundred and fifty-two young people between the ages of 18 and 30 who went to underground raves were interviewed. They were given a questionnaire to collect information on drug use at raves. Ravers used a mean of 4.9 different drugs at the last rave they had been to. Over 75% of them used tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, and amphetamine, and over half also used powder ecstasy. Two differentiated use patterns were found: one pattern concentrated more on the use of stimulants and the other on the use of hallucinogens. Underground ravers have a "standard" sociodemographic profile. The use of drugs is much higher than equivalent age group. Higher drug use prevalence than in mainstream rave parties is also observed. Different patterns of use appear which will be necessary to consider in designing preventions and risk reduction strategies,

Raves y consumo de drogas desde una perspectiva epidemiológica y psicosocial: una revisión bibliográfica sistemática

“…Los únicos estudios con muestras underground son, por un lado, el de Riley, Morey y Griffin (2008) que realiza un análisis cualitativo con 19 ravers underground que consumen ketamina. Por otro, los trabajos de Fernández-Calderón et al (2011a, 2012, que acceden a 248 ravers underground.…”

“…Explorar los patrones de consumo en la cultura de la fiesta techno. (Barrett et al, 2005;Boys et al, 1997;Fernández-Calderón et al, 2011a, 2012Forsyth, 1996;Riley et al, 2001;Van Wijngaart et al, 1999).…”

“…Hombres y mujeres participan en las raves casi en igual proporción, siendo el número de hombres ligeramente superior (Barrett et al, 2005;Boys et al, 1997;Fernández-Calderón et al, 2011a;Hunt et al, 2009a;Krul y Girbes, 2011a;Krul et al, 2011b;Riley y Hayward, 2004;Yacoubian et al, 2003;Yacoubian y Peters, 2007).…”

“…Los ravers son considerados como un grupo normalizado y/o socialmente integrado (Fernández-Calderón et al, 2011a;Goulding, Shankar y Elliott, 2002;Tossman et al, 2001). Una variable fundamental en este sentido es la formación académi-ca.…”

“…Además, aportan información sobre el número de drogas consumidas en la últi-ma rave. En el estudio de Boys et al (1997) Fernández-Calderón et al, 2011a) analizan, además, el consumo antes, durante y después de la rave, detectando un mayor uso de sustancias depresoras después de la fiesta. Hunt et al (2009a), utilizando metodología cualitativa, analizan los patrones de policonsumo y las razones para elegir unas combinaciones y evitar otras.…”