Psychoactive substance use among students: A cross-sectional analysis.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Epidemiology
• Substance Use Research

Background:

• Limited data exists on non-tobacco, non-alcohol, non-cannabis psychoactive substance use among students.
• Understanding the prevalence and patterns of diverse psychoactive substance use is crucial for targeted interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the prevalence and patterns of various psychoactive substance use (PSI) in a large student cohort.
• To examine the overlap between different PSI and the association with alcohol and tobacco use.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study of 10,066 students from the i-Share cohort (2015-2017).
• Baseline questionnaire data collected on lifetime, past year, and current use of cannabis, cocaine, amphetamines, nitrous oxide, poppers, and MDMA.
• Analysis included comparison of alcohol and tobacco use between PSI users and non-users.

Main Results:

• 65.5% of students reported lifetime use of at least one PSI.
• Cannabis was the most frequent PSI (57% lifetime), followed by poppers (28%) and nitrous oxide (26%).
• A strong association was found between nitrous oxide and popper use (65% of polydrug users). PSI users had higher rates of regular alcohol use, binge drinking, and tobacco use.

Conclusions:

• Psychoactive substance use, particularly nitrous oxide, is higher among students than previously reported in French and European studies.
• Regular alcohol, binge drinking, and tobacco use can serve as indicators for identifying students at risk of other PSI use.
• Findings highlight the need for tailored prevention programs for student populations.