Journal article
Associations between psychotic symptoms and substance use in young offenders
L Degenhardt, C Coffey, S Hearps, SA Kinner, R Borschmann, P Moran, G Patton
Drug and Alcohol Review | WILEY | Published : 2015
DOI: 10.1111/dar.12280
Abstract
Introduction and Aims: Substance use and psychotic symptoms/disorders are associated. There has been little examination of this issue in young offenders, despite elevated substance use in this group. Design and Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted by trained researchers with 514 young offenders. Psychotic symptoms were assessed using a previously validated screening measure, with scores ≥3 indicative of possible psychotic disorder. Associations between this indicator and patterns of offending, common symptoms of mental disorders and health risk behaviours, including substance use were examined. The extent to which substance use and psychotic symptoms remained associated after ad..
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Awarded by NHMRC
Funding Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) for providing funding for the study. Funding support for this work was also provided by the Goldman-Sachs Foundation and the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. Louisa Degenhardt and George Patton are supported by NHMRC Principal and Senior Principal Research Fellowships, respectively (#1041472, #1019887); and Stuart Kinner is supported by an NHMRC Career Development Award (#1004765). The authors wish to acknowledge the infrastructure funding received from the Victorian state government through the Operational Infrastructure Support (OIS) Program. The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of NSW is supported by funding from the Australian government under the Substance Misuse Prevention and Service Improvements Grants Fund. The authors wish to thank all study participants for sharing their stories. They also wish to thank the Juvenile Justice Branch of the Department of Human Services Victoria for assistance with data collection.