itssallyant-blog

[itssallyant-blog]

Relationship between the age an individual begins taking antidepressants and drug abuse.

For my peer-graded assignment, I will be presenting my research question and hypothesis along with some literature review to support them.

I decided to use The U.S. National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) data set. The NESARC survey was designed with the purpose of discovering the extent of psychiatric disorders and alcohol use among the U.S population. 

After scanning both the NESARC code book and the data set, I found that i was most interested in the association between depression and drug abuse. Most specifically, I want to focus on the relationship between the age an individual begins taking antidepressants and drug abuse. 

My hypothesis was founded on the increasing number of adolescents who are being treated for anxiety and depression who become dependent and even abusive of said medication as they approach adulthood.  The question is, among adults who are abusing said medication, at what age did they start taking the medication.

I found materials on Google Scholar using the search terms; drug abuse, depression and anxiety. An article by Quitkin et al., (1972) explored the complication associated with taking antidepressants for the treatment of the “Phobic Anxiety Syndrome” which is as described by the authors, “seen most often in patients with evidence of having been a fearful dependent child” Imipramine was the antidepressants used in this study. The findings of the articles showed that patients that stayed on the medication did not return to drug abuse while those who went off their antidepressants abused other medications. Burke Jr. et al., (2006) examined the age at which drug abuse and dependence to anxiety medication developed. Their results showed that for patients that developed mood disorders during adolescence, drug abuse started around ages 15-19 years while for patients who developed the disorder in adulthood, dependence was delayed to about 25-29 years.

With the help of these literature found, variables in sections 1, 3B, 3C, 4A and D9 will be considered for analysis.

REFERENCES:

Quitkin FM, Rifkin A, Kaplan J, Klein DF. Phobic Anxiety Syndrome Complicated by Drug Dependence and Addiction: A Treatable Form of Drug Abuse. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1972;27(2):159–162. doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.1972.01750260013002

Increased Rates of Drug Abuse and Dependence After Onset of Mood or Anxiety Disorders in Adolescence Jack D. Burke, Jr., Kimberly Christie Burke, and Donald S. Rae Psychiatric Services 1994 45:5, 451-455

[itssallyant-blog]

Week 1

Hi there, DATAlovers!

Yes, that’s what I’ll be calling y’all. I am taking a pretty interesting course on Coursera, Data Management and Visualization. It started out as a work thing but it may be love. I will try to regularly post my progress over the next couple of weeks so we could share this journey together! Feel free to comment or provide suggestions, I would love the feedback! Be kind!