PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCE USE - SOME ASSOCIATED CHARACTERISTICS

A questionnaire designed to assess the prevalence of psychoactive subs tance use and its relation with: (a) central nervous system risk facto rs, (b) associated disorders (allergies, migraine-type headaches, deve lopmental dyslexia history, smoking, suicide attempt,land sleep disord ers), and (c) cognitive-type symptoms, was given to a general populati on sample of 1,879 university students (mean age = 24.0) from Bogota ( Colombia, South America). A prevalence of 3.4% of self-reported psycho active substance use was found. Results indicated that the incidence o f some risk factors of minor brain injury or dysfunction, smoking, sui cide attempt, and headache was higher among the self-reported psychoac tive substance users than among nonusers. Cognitive-type symptoms, exc ept suicide ideation, did not differ between drug users and nonusers. Current results point to a significant association between psychoactiv e substance use and depressive symptoms, and there was no significant association between psychoactive substance use and psychotic ideation.