Psychological distress and cognitive distortions predict alcohol and marihuana use in Uruguayan citizens

RUIZ P.; BAREY A.; PAUTASSI R.M.

San Pablo

Congreso; 2022 Virtual Meeting of the Latinamerican Society of Biomedical Research on Alcoholism; 2022

Latinamerican Society of Biomedical Research on Alcoholism

There is an increasing interest in finding factors that predict substance use in the adult population, as the use of these substances is associated with significant negative effects. Among other factors, psychological distress has been associated with substance use. This distress may act via a series of cognitive distortions, such as polarized thinking, overgeneralization, and personalization. The effects of distress, in turn, could be counteracted by emotional regulation strategies. This study analyzed the predictive value of these variables upon alcohol or marihuana use. A sample of 1132 Uruguayan citizens answered an online survey compiling the Kessler K-10 inventory, the inventory of automatic thoughts (Ruiz y Luján, 1991), the emotion regulation questionnaire (ERQ) and several ad-hoc questions on alcohol and marihuana use. Hierarchical regression analyses, one for each substance, indicated that men were more likely to use either substance than women, and a younger age was associated with greater endorsement of marihuana use. Likewise, those participants with greater scores of psychological distress were more likely to use either substance. Interestingly, the addition of cognitive distortions significantly enhanced the predictive power of the model predicting marihuana use. Those exhibiting greater mind reading and catastrophic vision, yet lower personalization and fallacy of justice, endorsed greater marihuana use. Psychological distress was no longer predictive of marihuana use after adding these variables, suggesting that its effect was mediated by these cognitive distortions. These results pinpoint potential avenues for intervention to reduce marihuana and alcohol use.