Misuse of prescribed psychotropic medication and drug crime offending: A follow-up case-control study of former adolescent psychiatric inpatients.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Various psychotropic prescription drugs are known to have potential for misuse. Among teenagers, non-medical use of prescription drugs may predate illicit drug use or occur concomitantly.

Aims

Our aim was to examine prescriptions of psychotropic medications among drug crime offenders and non-criminal controls in a psychiatric inpatient cohort of 13-17-year-olds. Our research question was: were prescribed psychotropic and potentially addictive drugs associated with later drug crime offending.

Methods

Our sample was of all 60 adolescents who had been convicted of a drug crime by young adulthood with a twice-sized control group, matched for gender, age and family-type, from a cohort of 508 adolescents consecutively admitted to a psychiatric inpatient care in F

SUBMITTER: Kontu M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9327718 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature