中華心理衛生協會

Purpose: The internet contains an extraordinary amount of information on illicit substances and plays an important role in illicit substances delivery. This internet-based survey study was designed to understand the prevalence of illicit use and to analyze related risk factors, especially for personality traits. Methods: We used snowball sampling and delivered an anonymous online questionnaire through social media to estimate the size of the hidden population as well as to identify their personality characteristics and illicit substance use experiences. Lifetime prevalence of illicit drug use was calculated and the odds ratios of personality traits on illicit drug use were also estimated by applying multiple logistic regression models. Results: In two waves, a total of 436 participants responded, including 34 illicit substance users (7.79%). The most used illicit substance was ketamine obtained from friends (50%). Risk factors included being young, male, highly educated, and novelty seeking. Compared to tobacco and alcohol users, illicit substance users had higher mean novelty-seeking scores (M = 18.08), and the highest mean scores on the four subscales in terms of exploratory excitability, impulsiveness, extravagance, and disorderliness. Multiple logistic regression showed that impulsiveness was the only risk factor, and people with high impulsiveness were at 2.74 times more risk. Conclusions: The prevalence of illicit substance use identified was higher than in past studies, which indicates that anonymous online questionnaires provide an appropriate way to gather information on illicit substance use. Novelty seeking is an important risk factor for illicit substance use, especially for those with higher impulsiveness scores.