[Psychotropic drug use in adolescence: why more girls? Study of a sample of 12-20-year-old students in Haute-Marne (France)]

Abstract

As part of a cross-sectional survey on adolescent health, psychotropic drug use was investigated by a self-administered questionnaire on school based adolescents aged 12-20 years (N = 3,279). 27.5% of the girls and 13.8% of the boys had taken a psychotropic drug during the 12 previous months. Female overuse was observed for different types of drugs (for distress/anxiety, sleep disturbance...) whether prescribed or not. Increased use with age was more marked for girls (14.3% to 36.2%) than for boys (10.7 to 16.9%). Psychotropic drug use increased with depressiveness, somatic complaints and medical care. A logistic regression analysis showed that female consumption was still slightly higher than that of boys after adjustment on other related factors.