title: Life stress as a precursor to adolescent drug dependence.
abstract: Though drug dependence is often characterized as a stress-produced disorder, there seems to be little or no quantitative data relating stress and drug dependence. In this study a recognized instrument for the measurement of stress, Coddington's Life Event Record, was administered to 31 drug-dependent adolescents by estimating levels of life stress during the year preceding their first illicit drug use. The drug-dependent subjects showed significantly higher life stress scores than did a standard normal population of adolescents. The null hypothesis of no difference was rejected at the .005 level. A stress-reduction theory of drug dependence gains support from these results.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D012737:Sex Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000209:etiology*
chemical_list: D013287:Illicit Drugs; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations