Contextualising psychological distress among regular ecstasy users : the importance of sociodemographic factors and patterns of drug use George, Jessica, Kinner, Stuart A., Bruno, Raimondo, Degenhardt, Louisa and Dunn, Matthew 2010, Contextualising psychological distress among regular ecstasy users : the importance of sociodemographic factors and patterns of drug use, Drug and alcohol review, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 243-249, doi: 10.1111/j.1465-3362.2009.00159.x. Attached Files Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads Title Contextualising psychological distress among regular ecstasy users : the importance of sociodemographic factors and patterns of drug use Author(s) George, Jessica Kinner, Stuart A. Bruno, Raimondo Degenhardt, Louisa Dunn, Matthew orcid.org/0000-0003-4615-5078 Journal name Drug and alcohol review Volume number 29 Issue number 3 Start page 243 End page 249 Total pages 7 Publisher Wiley-Blackwell Place of publication Oxford, England Publication date 2010 ISSN 0959-5236 1465-3362 Summary Introduction and Aims. Considerable concern has been raised about associations between ecstasy use and mental health. Studies of ecstasy users typically investigate varying levels of lifetime use of ecstasy, and often fail to account for other drug use and sociodemographic characteristics of participants, which may explain mixed findings. The current study aimed to examine the relationship between patterns of recent (last six months) ecstasy use and psychological distress among current, regular ecstasy users, controlling for sociodemographic risk factors and patterns of other drug use. Design and Methods. Data were collected from regular ecstasy users (n = 752) recruited from each capital city in Australia as part of the Ecstasy and related Drugs Reporting System (EDRS). Psychological distress was assessed using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10). Data were analysed using multinomial logistic regression. Results. Seven per cent of the sample scored in the ‘high’ distress category and 55% in the ‘medium’ distress category. Patterns of ecstasy use were not independently associated with psychological distress. The strongest predictors of distress were female sex, lower education, unemployment, ‘binge’ drug use including ecstasy (use for >48 h without sleep), frequent cannabis use and daily tobacco use. Discussion and Conclusions. Regular ecstasy users have elevated levels of psychological distress compared with the general population; however, ecstasy use per se was not independently related to such distress. Other factors, including sociodemographic characteristics and other drug use patterns, appear to be more important. These findings highlight the importance of targeting patterns of polydrug use in order to reduce drug-related harm among regular ecstasy users Language eng DOI 10.1111/j.1465-3362.2009.00159.x Field of Research 119999 Medical and Health Sciences not elsewhere classified Socio Economic Objective 970111 Expanding Knowledge in the Medical and Health Sciences HERDC Research category C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal Copyright notice ©2010, Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30040076 Document type: Journal Article Collections: Faculty of Health School of Health and Social Development Related Links Link Description Connect to published version (restricted access) Go to link with your DU access privileges     Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Versions Version Filter Type Wed, 09 Nov 2011, 11:18:16 EST Thu, 10 Nov 2011, 08:40:37 EST Thu, 10 Nov 2011, 08:44:03 EST Fri, 13 Jun 2014, 11:42:27 EST Thu, 11 Dec 2014, 17:29:01 EST Filtered Full Citation counts:   Cited 20 times in TR Web of Science Cited 20 times in Scopus Search Google Scholar Access Statistics: 671 Abstract Views, 1 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Wed, 09 Nov 2011, 11:18:16 EST