Substance Use, Anxiety, and Depressive Symptoms Among College Students

ABSTRACT

Research on college substance use and mental illness is limited and inconsistent. Measures of substance use, and anxiety and depressive symptoms, were completed by 1,316 undergraduates within a major drug transportation corridor. Hierarchical linear regressions were used to test associations between anxious and depressive symptoms and substance use (i.e., alcohol, cannabis, tobacco, cocaine, other amphetamines, sedatives, hallucinogens, and designer drugs). Depressive symptoms were associated with use of cannabis, tobacco, amphetamines, cocaine, sedatives, and hallucinogens. Anxiety symptoms were unrelated to substance use. These findings support the need for education and prevention at universities, emphasizing tobacco, cannabis, and certain “harder” drugs.

KEYWORDS:

• anxiety
• college students
• depression
• mental health
• substance use

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the following research assistants for work on data collection and data entry for this project: Alyssa Battipaglia, Tonilynn Bocchino, James Ferraro, and Deina Pesino. The work of graduate research assistant Leann Misencik in reviewing and editing this article is also much appreciated. All authors of this article declare they have no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported in part by the State of Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS), with the support of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) (Grant number: Q184Z100001).