Longitudinal studies of drug abuse in a fifteen-year-old population.

Abstract

A representative, stratified sample of 9th-graders of comprehensive school 1968 were followed retrospectively and prospectively in files from hospitals and Social Welfare Administration and in other official registers [Gothenburg, Sweden]. Those who had stated high-frequency drug use in a school questionnaire, who had attended special classes or had dropped out of school appeared to a larger extent than the average 9th-graders in social and child psychiatric registers during childhood. Over a follow-up period of 11 yr they had a large over-consumption of drug-related psychiatric and social care. They were more often sick-listed and assessed to be without income than the average year cohort. The women had children before 20 yr of age and the men were exempted from military service to a higher extent.