Prescription Drugs (Rx)

Prescription Drugs study aimed to assess the prescription drug misuse and abuse on a United States/ México border metropolitan area. Data collected from this study enabled examination of the specific types of prescription drugs used and any associated elevations in depressive or anxiety symptomology as well as possible associations with available social support systems, acculturation level, and co-abuse of other substances. We hypothesized that individuals who report more drug use in general will have a higher likelihood of prescription drug misuse. Furthermore, we hypothesized that given any association between acculturation level and prescription drug use, reported anxiety and depressive symptomology as well as the availability of social support would attenuate the effect of acculturation in reported rates of prescription drug misuse (self-medication), controlling for use of other drugs (polydrug use) that may be influencing both psychiatric symptomology and prescription drug misuse.

Secondary aims included the assessment of measures’ psychometric properties (e.g., depression, acculturation) in a Hispanic college student sample.