Association between the consumption of psychoactive substances and suicidal thoughts in school-age adolescents in Colombia 2016

ABSTRACT

Background: Suicidal thoughts are a frequent problem in adolescents and young people. They have been associated with psychoactive substances’ consumption.Objective: To determine the prevalence of suicidal thoughts and its association with the psychoactive substances’ consumption during the last 12 months, in school adolescents in Colombia, in 2016 Materials andMethods: A secondary analysis of the information obtained from the 2016 National Study on Consumption of Psychoactive Substances in Colombian. For this, data from 80,018 adolescents, between 12 and 18 years of age were analyzed. Sociodemographic characteristics, suicidal thoughts’ frequency, and consumption of 12 psychoactive substances were examined. Generalized linear models were used to estimate the association between suicidal thought and different psychoactive substance consumption.Results: The prevalence of suicidal thoughts was 15.7%. All psychoactive substances showed association with suicidal thoughts. The association of greater magnitude was registered with the use of non-prescription tranquilizers (OR 3.66 95%CI 3.06 – 4.31), inhalants (OR 3.65 95%CI 3.08 – 4.33), basuco (OR 3.39 95%CI 2.49 – 4.61), cigarettes (OR 2.70 95%CI 2.49 – 2.93), marijuana (OR 2.34 95%CI 2.11 – 2.59), and alcohol (OR 2.29 95%CI 2.13 – 2.48).Conclusions: Suicidal thoughts show association with all psychoactive substances’ consumption, additionally, polydrug use was found to increase the magnitude of the association.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescent
• cigarette smoking
• illegal drugs
• self-destructive behavior
• Colombia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The ENCSPEC-2016 was funded by the Colombian government. Additionally, the authors have been supported by Universidad de los Llanos, Colombia; and, Corporación Universitaria Empresarial Alexander Von Humboldt, Colombia.