BMJ  2006;332 (8 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7545.0-b

Anxiety and depression in childhood may raise risk of ecstasy use

Adolescents who had symptoms of anxiety and depression in childhood seem more than twice as likely to use the recreational drug ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, MDMA) than adolescents without such a history. Huizink and colleagues (p 825) conducted a prospective, longitudinal, population based study of over 1500 people in a Dutch province, with a follow-up of 14 years (response rate almost 80%). They found an increased risk of ecstasy use (hazard ratio 2.22 (95% confidence interval 1.20 to 4.11). Since ecstasy was not available in the Netherlands at the time of the baseline testing for anxiety and depression, the results support the view that symptoms of anxiety and depression can cause ecstasy use, says Poikolainen (p 803) in the accompanying editorial.

Credit: SPL

 

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