title: Non-medical use of psychoactive drugs in relation to suicide tendencies among Chinese adolescents.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To investigate the prevalence of non-medical use of psychoactive prescription drug (NMUPD) among adolescents and to explore the associations between non-medical psychoactive prescription drug use and depressive symptoms, poor sleep quality, deliberate self-harm, and suicide.
  
  
  METHODS
  A two-stage stratified cluster sample design produced a representative sample of 12-19-year-old students in grades 1-6 who attended public middle schools in Guangdong province. Prevalence estimates (SE) of non-medical psychoactive prescription drug use were calculated, and logistic regression was used to examine its association with depressive symptoms, poor sleep quality, deliberate self-harm, and suicide.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, 7.5% of adolescents reported non-medical use of opioids, and 4.8% of adolescents reported non-medical use of sedatives. Lifetime, last-year, and last-month non-medical use of opioids and sedatives were positively associated with depressive symptoms, poor sleep quality, deliberate self-harm, suicidal ideation, and suicidal attempts among different gender and age-group adolescents. Those who reported last month non-medical use of opioids and sedatives had the greatest odds of reporting depressive symptoms, poor sleep quality, deliberate self-harm, suicidal ideation, and suicidal attempts. Males who were last month non-medical users of opioids or sedative had 8.9 or 10.7 times greater odds of reporting a suicidal attempt, and 8.8 or 9.8 times greater odds of reporting a suicidal attempt were observed among adolescents aged 16-19 who were last-month non-medical users of opioids or sedatives.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings provide evidence for improving adolescents' suicide prevention strategy by targeting supervision on high risk current non-medical users of psychoactive drug.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-Sen University, China; School of Public Health, Guangzhou Medical University, China.
authors.forename: Wang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Juan
authors.affiliation: Center for ADR Monitoring of Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Deng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jian-Xiong
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-Sen University, China.
authors.forename: Guo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lan
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-Sen University, China.
authors.forename: He
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-Sen University, China.
authors.forename: Gao
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: Center for ADR Monitoring of Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Huang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jing-Hui
authors.affiliation: Center for ADR Monitoring of Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Huang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Guo-Liang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-Sen University, China. Electronic address: lucy_sysu@163.com.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ci-Yong
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs; D012307:Risk Factors; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D059020:Suicidal Ideation; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs
keywords: Adolescent; Guangdong; Non-medical use of psychoactive prescription drug; Suicide