title: The life course perspective on drug use: a conceptual framework for understanding drug use trajectories.
abstract: This article discusses the life course perspective on drug use, including conceptual and analytic issues involved in developing the life course framework to explain how drug use trajectories develop during an individual's lifetime and how this knowledge can guide new research and approaches to management of drug dependence. Central concepts include trajectories marked by transitions and social capital and turning points influencing changes. The life course perspective offers an organizing framework for classifying varying drug use trajectories, identifying critical events and factors contributing to the persistence or change in drug use, analytically ordering events that occur during the life span, and determining contributory relationships.
authors.affiliation: University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
authors.forename: Yih-Ing
authors.initials: YI
authors.lastname: Hser
authors.forename: Douglas
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Longshore
authors.forename: M Douglas
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Anglin
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003415:Crime / Q000523:psychology; D019468:Disease Management; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs; D008019:Life Style; D008134:Long-Term Care; D008603:Mental Health; D012008:Recurrence; D012307:Risk Factors; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D013287:Illicit Drugs