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Are ecstasy users biased toward endorsing somatic mental health symptoms? Results from a general community sample
Amanda M George1, Tim D Windsor, Bryan Rodgers
1Centre for Applied Psychology, University of Canberra, Canberra ACT, Australia. amanda.george@canberra.edu.au
Rationale:
Whether the reported poorer mental health of ecstasy users is due to a bias in endorsement of somatic symptoms has been postulated, but rarely examined.
Objectives:
The purpose of this study is to investigate whether levels of ecstasy use were associated with differential probabilities of endorsing somatic mental health symptoms.
Methods:
Current ecstasy users aged 24-30 years (n = 316) were identified from a population-based Australian study. Measures included frequency of ecstasy, meth/amphetamine, and cannabis use and the Goldberg anxiety/depression symptom scales.
Results:
Multiple indicator, multiple cause models demonstrated no bias towards endorsing somatic symptoms with higher ecstasy use, both with and without adjustment for gender, cannabis, and meth/amphetamine use.
Conclusions:
Other studies using alternate measures of mental health should adopt this approach to determine if there is a bias in the endorsement of somatic symptoms among ecstasy users.
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