Prescription Drug Misuse Across the Lifespan: A Developmental Perspective

McLarnon, Megan E.; Barrett, Sean P.; Monaghan, Tracy L.; Stewart, Sherry H.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-3375-0_16

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 108 publications

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“…Given that clinical studies show that the effects of CE with current drugs are limited and sometimes even detrimental (Glannon, 2008 ; Repantis et al, 2010 ; Smith and Farah, 2011 ; Ragan et al, 2013 ), expectations regarding effectiveness seem often to be exaggerated (Repantis et al, 2010 ) while at the same time there are also potential risks in terms of side-effects and long-term health consequences (Sussman et al, 2006 ; Maher, 2008 ; Winder-Rhodes et al, 2010 ; Ragan et al, 2013 ). Beside these risks, the ethical debate about CE-drug use discusses several other potential negative consequences such as whether it undermines authenticity, amounts to cheating/is unfair, increases social inequality, results in direct or indirect coercion to also use such drugs, can burden the health care system, and can result in the involvement of the criminal justice system (Glannon, 2008 ; Greely et al, 2008 ; Bostrom and Sandberg, 2009 ; McLarnon et al, 2012 ; Dubljević et al, 2014 ; Sattler, in press ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Associations Between the Big Five Personality Traits and the Non-Medical Use of Prescription Drugs for Cognitive Enhancement

Sattler¹,

Schunck²

2016

Front. Psychol.

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While the number of studies of the non-medical use of prescription drugs to augment cognitive functions is growing steadily, psychological factors that can potentially help explain variance in such pharmaceutical cognitive enhancement (CE) behavior are often neglected in research. This study investigates the association between the Big Five personality traits and a retrospective (prior CE-drug use) as well as a prospective (willingness to use CE drugs) measure of taking prescription drugs with the purpose of augmenting one's cognitive functions (e.g., concentration, memory, or vigilance) without medical necessity. We use data from a large representative survey of German employees (N = 6454, response rate = 29.8%). The Five Factor Model (FFM) of Personality was measured with a short version of the Big Five Personality Traits Inventory (BFI-S), which includes: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Together with this, demographic variables such as gender, age, education, and income were used as potential confounders in multiple logistic regression models. Our results show a 2.96% lifetime prevalence of CE-drug use and a 10.45% willingness to (re)use such drugs in the future. We found that less conscientious and more neurotic respondents have a higher probability of prior CE-drug use and a greater willingness to use CE drugs in the future. No significant effects were found for openness, extraversion, or agreeableness. Prior CE-drug use was strongly associated with a greater willingness to take such drugs in the future. This study shows that specific personality traits are not only associated with prior enhancement behavior, but also affect the willingness to (re)use such drugs. It helps increase understanding of the risk factors of CE-drug use, which is a health-related behavior that can entail severe side-effects for consumers. The knowledge gathered can thus help improve interventions aimed at minimizing health problems.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 2 In line with a developmental framework (e.g., McLarnon et al, 2012 ), individuals in different stages of life might have different demands or propensities to use CE drugs (e.g., due to different peer exposure, risk preferences, or stressful periods). We therefore additionally tested quadratic and cubic functions of the age effect.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations Between the Big Five Personality Traits and the Non-Medical Use of Prescription Drugs for Cognitive Enhancement

Sattler¹,

Schunck²

2016

Front. Psychol.

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“…Second, while prescription misuse tendencies were controlled for analytically at the person and moment level (and neither variable was reliably associated with the outcomes), the sample was primarily of students who had recently misused a prescription medication at screening, which could limit the generalizability of the findings as prescription drug misuse is associated with other substance use and lower academic achievement for some (McLarnon et al, 2012). Prescription drug misuse has been reported by college students representing numerous demographic characteristics (McLarnon et al, 2012), and the recent misuse group did not differ demographically from the non-misuse group in the overall sample (Papp et al, 2020), lending some support to the applicability of the findings reaching beyond solely college students who misuse prescription drugs. Nevertheless, a next important step would be to replicate these findings in more representative samples of partnered college students.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Romantic (versus other) events and momentary affect: Immediate and lagged within-person associations among college students.

Blumenstock¹,

Papp²

2022

Journal of Family Psychology

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Given that affect is highly responsive to experiences representing current goals and values, and young adulthood reflects a period in which romantic relationships become increasingly important, this study explored the links between everyday romantic relationship events and momentary affect among young adult college students. Romantic events were then directly compared to academic and family events-two other salient life domains for these students-as predictors of current and subsequent momentary affect. Drawn from an ecological momentary sampling study designed to assess substance use, participants in dating relationships (N = 130) completed four reports per day for 28 days (totaling 10,318 reports). Multilevel models tested within-person associations between positive and negative romantic events (broadly defined) as predictors of positive (e.g., happy, excited) and negative (e.g., sad, lonely) affect in the moment and beyond. Analyses included both event occurrence and event intensity models, facilitating event comparison. Models accounted for day-level effects and several relevant individual and relationship controls. Results indicated that positive romantic events were associated with immediate and lasting increases in positive affect and immediate (but not always lasting) decreases in negative affect, whereas negative romantic events were associated with immediate and lasting changes in both positive and negative affect. When significant, direct comparisons indicated that romantic events were associated with larger changes in concurrent and subsequent affect than academic or family events. Findings highlight the powerful role that young adults' romantic relationships play in their emotional well-being, particularly in comparison to other developmentally and environmentally salient life domains.

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“…Prescription drug misuse itself is potentially harmful and poses additional costs to individuals and society for its established links with illicit drug use, alcohol abuse, mental health problems, risky sexual behaviors, and overdose-related deaths [11][12][13][14]. College students comprise a particularly high-risk group for this behavior, with prevalence rates ranging from 5% to 43% [15,16]. College students are more likely than young adult peers to misuse stimulant medications [17] and to routinely be in situations, such as final exam periods, which involve known motivators for misuse (eg, improving study habits and grades) [18][19][20].…”

Section: Prescription Drug Misuse Among Young Adults: Background Resementioning

confidence: 99%

Development and Acceptability of a Method to Investigate Prescription Drug Misuse in Daily Life: Ecological Momentary Assessment Study (Preprint)

Papp¹,

Barringer²,

Blumenstock³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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BACKGROUND Prescription drug misuse and abuse is an established public health challenge, and young adults are particularly affected. There is a striking lack of real-time, naturalistic data collection assessing intentions to misuse and other precipitating factors at the time of actual misuse, leaving unknown under what conditions individuals are most likely to misuse prescription medications. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) applications and protocols designed to capture this information would accelerate and expand the knowledge base and could directly contribute to prevention and treatment efforts. OBJECTIVE The objectives in the current study were to (1) describe the development and administration of a mobile application and protocol designed to collect EMA real-time factors associated with college students’ prescription drug misuse intentions and behaviors in daily life; (2) characterize the study population who received the protocol training, including demographic information of participants who endorsed recent prescription drug misuse at screening (risk group; n = 300) and those who did not (non-risk group; n = 55); (3) present completion rates, compliance, acceptability, and reactivity associated with the EMA protocol for both risk and non-risk groups; and (4) establish initial construct validity by linking the reports of misuse behavior in daily life collected via the EMA app to prescription drug misuse reported on a standard survey. METHODS An EMA data collection app and protocol were designed specifically to capture hypothesized contextual factors along with prescription drug misuse intentions and behaviors in daily life. Using the protocol, young-adult college students (N = 352) completed signal- and event-contingent reports over a 28-day period. When intention to misuse a prescription drug was endorsed, a brief follow-up prompt was sent 15 minutes later to collect participants’ indications of whether or not misuse had occurred. RESULTS Risk-group participants were significantly more likely than non-risk counterparts to endorse any prescription drug misuse intentions in daily life, to complete one or more follow-up report, and to endorse any prescription drug misuse behavior in daily life on the follow-ups. Overall, participants demonstrated consistent engagement with the EMA procedures and returned an average of 74.5 reports (SD = 23.82, range 10-122). Participants in risk and non-risk groups did not differ in the number of reports they completed, the number of their reporting days, or their average completion rates. Results indicated minimal reactivity to the method. Initial construct validity was found. Participants reported uniformly positive experiences in the study and remained highly engaged throughout the reporting protocol and broader study. CONCLUSIONS The novel EMA app and protocol provide an effective way to assess real-time factors associated with prescription drug misuse intentions and behavior in daily life. The resulting investigations offer the potential to provide highly translatable information for research and prevention efforts.

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Prescription Drug Misuse Across the Lifespan: A Developmental Perspective

Cited by 7 publications

References 108 publications

Associations Between the Big Five Personality Traits and the Non-Medical Use of Prescription Drugs for Cognitive Enhancement

Associations Between the Big Five Personality Traits and the Non-Medical Use of Prescription Drugs for Cognitive Enhancement

Romantic (versus other) events and momentary affect: Immediate and lagged within-person associations among college students.

Development and Acceptability of a Method to Investigate Prescription Drug Misuse in Daily Life: Ecological Momentary Assessment Study (Preprint)

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