Pubdate: Wed, 29 Aug 2001
Source: American Journal of Psychiatry
Issue: 158:1519-1521, September 2001
Section: Brief Report
Copyright: 2001 American Psychiatric Association Inc
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Authors: Harrison G Pope Jr MD, Martin Ionescu-Pioggia PhD, Kimberly W. Pope BA
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DRUG USE AND LIFE STYLE AMONG COLLEGE UNDERGRADUATES: A 30-YEAR 
LONGITUDINAL STUDY

Objective:
The authors examined trends in the prevalence of substance use and its 
relationship to attributes of life style among college students over a 
30-year period.

Method:
They distributed anonymous questionnaires to 796 seniors at a large New 
England college in 1999, using methods essentially identical to those of 
their previous studies at the same college in 1969, 1978, and 1989.

Results:
Most forms of drug use rose to a peak in 1978 then fell over the next 21 
years, except for use of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine ("ecstasy"). On 
several variables, college substance users differed more sharply from 
nonusers in 1999 than in previous decades.

Conclusions:
Although the study was limited to students at a single institution, its 
findings suggest that college drug use is generally declining and that 
users have increasingly diverged from nonusers in their values and life style.
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