Hair analysis shows child drug use could be twice as high as we think
Experts recommend future substance use research should combine survey and
hair analysis results

Date:
March 6, 2023
Source:
Taylor & Francis Group
Summary:
Hair analysis could be the key to understanding adolescent drug
usage, as a new study uncovers almost double the number of children
were found to be using substances than those who admitted to in
a US survey.


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FULL STORY ==========================================================================
Hair analysis could be the key to understanding adolescent drug usage,
as a new study uncovers almost double the number of children were found
to be using substances than those who admitted to in a US survey.


========================================================================== Published in the peer-reviewed journal American Journal of Drug and
Alcohol Abuse, the research looking at more than 1,300 children, aged
nine to 13, found a 9% increase in substance use when adding hair analysis results to those of the survey.

The paper suggests hair analysis far outweighs the accuracy of assessing
drug use compared to survey alone, and experts recommend that future
research should combine both methods.

"It's vital that we understand the factors that lead to drug use in
teenagers, so that we can design targeted health initiatives to prevent children from being exposed to drugs at a young age," says Natasha Wade,
an assistant professor of psychology at the University of California,
San Diego, who led the study.

Adolescent substance use is a serious public health issue, with 5%
of US 8th graders (ages 13-14) reporting cannabis use in the last
year. The numbers are even higher for alcohol and nicotine use, with 26%
of 8th graders admitting to drinking and 23% to smoking nicotine in the
past year.

These numbers are worrying enough, as substance use during adolescence
is linked to a whole host of negative life outcomes -- including poor
academic achievement, mental health problems and changes in brain
function.

But what if the figures are actually greater than this? To find out a multidisciplinary team of experts, led by Dr Wade, asked 1,390 children
whether they had taken drugs in the last year. Hair samples were then also taken so that independent tests could confirm whether recent drug-taking
had taken place.

Of the children who were asked if they had taken drugs, 10% agreed that
they had. Hair analyses also showed that 10% of adolescents overall
tested positive for at least one drug, with 6.1% testing positive for cannabinoids, 1.9% alcohol, 1.9% amphetamines, and 1.7% cocaine.

However, the children that self-reported drug-taking were not the same
as those who tested positive through hair samples. In fact, of the 136
cases that self- reported any substance use and 145 whose hair samples
were positive for any drug, matches were found for only 23 cases.

Most importantly, hair drug analysis revealed an additional 9% of
substance use cases over and above self-report alone, nearly doubling
the number of identified substance users to 19%.

"A long-standing issue in substance use research, particularly that
relating to children and adolescents, is a reliance on self-reporting
despite the known limitations to the methodology. When asked, children
may mis-report (unintentionally or intentionally) and say they take drugs
when they don't, or conversely deny taking drugs when they actually do,"
Dr Wade adds.

"But rather than scrapping self-reporting of drug use altogether, a more accurate picture of teenage substance use can be gained by measuring both.

"Self-reporting has its own strengths, for instance young people may
be more willing to disclose substance use at a low level, but are less
likely to when frequent drug-taking patterns emerge.

"Conversely, hair assays are not sensitive enough to detect only one
standard drink of alcohol or smoking one cannabis joint. Instead, the
method is better at detecting frequent and moderate to heavy drug use.

"Combining both methodologies is therefore vital to accurately determine
the levels of substance use in the teenage population." Commenting on
the findings of their paper, the authors also add however, that it is
important to note that there is a chance that some, perhaps even many,
of these youth are unaware that they even used a substance, as it could
have been given to them by a parent or peer or they may have simply
forgotten they had used it.

* RELATED_TOPICS
o Health_&_Medicine
# Controlled_Substances # Pharmacology # Teen_Health
# Hair_Loss # Pharmaceuticals # Children's_Health #
HIV_and_AIDS # Personalized_Medicine
* RELATED_TERMS
o Pharmacology o Hair o Hair_follicle o Developmental_psychology
o Narcotic o Unsaturated_fat o Molecular_biology o Vitamin_C

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Taylor_&_Francis_Group. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Natasha E. Wade, Ryan M. Sullivan, Susan F. Tapert, William
E. Pelham,
Marilyn A. Huestis, Krista M. Lisdahl, Frank Haist. Concordance
between substance use self-report and hair analysis in
community-based adolescents. The American Journal of Drug and
Alcohol Abuse, 2023; 49 (1): 76 DOI: 10.1080/00952990.2023.2164931 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230306143439.htm

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