PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: MALLETT, KIMBERLY A
GRANT NUMBER: R01 AA021117-03S1
ABSTRACT: Alcohol use and related consequences among college students continue to be a public health concern on campuses throughout the United States. Many studies have examined the effect of alcohol consumption on acute and chronic outcomes; however, less is known about outcomes associated with comorbid polysubstance use among college students. Along with alcohol, nicotine and marijuana use are quite prevalent on college campuses, and often used together. Students also report using a variety of other drugs such as amphetamines, misuse of prescription drugs, ecstasy, and opiates, but to a lesser extent. Studies to date have identified some patterns of polysubstance use and related problems and have documented that students who combine alcohol with other substances (e.g., nicotine, marijuana, etc.) consume more alcohol and report more consequences (Haas & Smith, 2012; O’Grady et al., 2008). Preliminary analyses of data from our parent grant (R01021117) confirm these patterns. The proposed research will extend our parent grant examining 2000 college student drinkers across 4 years of college in two ways: 1) Collect additional longitudinal event-level (weekend diary) data on a subsample of 500 participants who endorse polysubstance use to provide insights into variations in comorbid alcohol, nicotine, marijuana, and other illicit drug use, and consequences; and 2) Use a person-centered approach to identify subgroups of polysubstance users, predictors of the subgroups, and longitudinal patterns between polysubstance use and acute and chronic consequences.