Course of drug use from early adulthood to mid-life among Vietnam-era veterans

AbstractThere is limited study of drug use trajectories over the life-course and limited examination of drug versus alcohol use trajectories. The purpose of this study was to identify differences in drug use trajectories from early adulthood to mid-life and to compare and contrast these with trajectories based on the course of alcohol abuse. The sample consisted of male veterans from the Vietnam-era study, a 25-year follow-up of the Vietnam Drug User Returns project that assessed medical and psychiatric consequences of substance use disorders. Retrospective structured interviews covered the 25 years since an original 1972 survey; measures of alcohol and drug use were obtained for each year of the follow-up interval. Individuals with a lifetime diagnosis of a drug use disorder (DUD) (n = 319) were selected for further analysis. A four-class model was identified with trajectories parallel to those identified in previous studies examining alcohol use. However, the covariates that differentiated the alcohol u...