Drug abuse high in West Australian young men: Study

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDNov 21 2011

According to a drug expert almost one in 10 men under 30 years of age has regularly used stimulant drugs and West Australians are the worst offenders.

The figures come out in a study published in the Medical Journal of Australia that showed that a nearly 100,000 young men were using stimulant drugs like speed, ecstasy, cocaine or ice.

More than 8 per cent of Australian men aged between 16 and 29 years can be classed as having a lifetime stimulant use disorder, which means they have misused or have been dependent on the drugs says the report. Overall, 3.3 per cent of Australians were identified by researchers as having a lifetime stimulant-use disorder based on data from the 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing.

Curtin University's National Drug Research Institute director Professor Steve Allsop said this percentage could be slightly higher in WA. “Historically, West Australians use more amphetamine type drugs than the rest of the country.” Professor Allsop said there were a variety of reasons for this, including “high disposable incomes, long work hours, socializing and partying long hours”.

Professor Allsop said the responsibilities of life were the main reason that the amount of drug use decreased in people 30 years and older. “As you get older consequences accumulate, responsibilities become apparent; mortgage, children, an aging body.” Additionally men tended to be the highest users of all drugs. Professor Allsop said there was no one reason for this, but said cultural expectations played a part and possibly men had less of a focus on health than women. Professor Allsop also said some people preferred the nature of stimulants, that they increase alertness, attention, and energy over other drugs. He said men who are long distance drivers and those in the hospitality industry were more likely to use stimulants than the other young men.

“Some people put the increase of amphetamines down to the heroin shortage of the late 1990s,” Professor Allsop said. But he said stimulant use could have increased because of its synthetic nature and that it was easier to make.

While some people who have had a lifetime stimulant use disorder can go on to lead healthy lives, others could face long term impacts of drug use. “It's dose dependent, the more you use, the longer and greater the risks,” Professor Allsop said.

One of the study's authors, Dr Grant Sara, says young men are more likely to develop severe mental health issues if they take drugs like speed or ice. “It's especially concerning because stimulants are a particularly powerful trigger for psychosis for people who are vulnerable to it…The rates of use are highest in the age group and gender who are most vulnerable to psychosis,” he said.

While sleep disorders and malnutrition can improve overtime, psychosis can recur. “A small proportion of people run the risk of relapse, even if not using the drug anymore but through stress drinking heavily, or other drug use,” Allsop said. Dr. James Leyden, neurologist from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide and coauthors also found that 15.6 percent of stroke victims aged between 15 and 50 had been using illicit drugs like amphetamine or marijuana.

Dr Sara says more work needs to be done to stop young men getting addicted to these sorts of drugs. “The gap between using and running into problems with abuse or dependence is quite narrow for stimulants…So of people who said they'd used more than five times in their life, nearly half had features of problems due to use,” he said.

Dr Rebecca McKetin, a mental health research fellow at the Australian National University, and Dr Dan Lubman, director of the Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre at Monash University, in an accompanying editorial wrote that heavy stimulant use is also associated with other serious health problems, including HIV and other blood-borne viruses and sexually transmitted diseases. Authors of the study concluded, “More work is needed to develop and implement effective treatment options for heavy users of stimulants.”