Clever Children More Likely To Take Drugs As Adults, Says Study


First Posted: 15/11/11 09:04 GMT Updated: 15/11/11 09:04 GMT

A high childhood IQ may be linked to drug use in later life, particularly among women, a new study shows.

Analysis of almost 8,000 people showed that men with a high IQ at the age of five were around 50% more likely to have taken drugs such as amphetamines or ecstasy 25 years later than those with low IQ scores.

Women in the study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health were more than twice as likely to have used cannabis and cocaine as those with low IQ scores.

The findings did not change irrespective of anxiety or depression during adolescence, parental social class, and lifetime household income.

By the age of 30, around one in three men and one in six women had used cannabis in the past 12 months.

For the same period, 8.6% of men and 3.6% of women had used cocaine.

Other drugs that appeared in the study included uppers, downers, LSD and heroin.

Study author Dr James White said: "Although most studies have suggested that higher child or adolescent IQ prompts the adoption of a healthy lifestyle as an adult, other studies have linked higher childhood IQ scores to excess alcohol intake and alcohol dependency in adulthood."

Although it is not yet clear exactly why there should be a link between high IQ and illicit drug use, the authors of the Cardiff University study point to previous research which shows that highly intelligent people are open to experiences and keen on novelty and stimulation.

Other research has also shown that brainy children are often easily bored and suffer at the hands of their peers for being different, "either of which could conceivably increase vulnerability to using drugs as an avoidant coping strategy", according to Dr White

Clever Children More Likely To Take Drugs As Adults, Says Study

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I'd speculate there is also an element of figuring out that the anti-drug messaging is so one-sided and uninformative - as parodied by South Park - that it arouses curiosity.

Err.... "Study author Dr James White said: "Although most studies have suggested that higher child or adolescent IQ prompts the adoption of a healthy lifestyle as an adult, other studies have linked higher childhood IQ scores to excess alcohol intake and alcohol dependency in adulthood."

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I'd like some clarity on the inherent contradiction before drawing any conclusion...

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Too much smarts 4 there own good....

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Bah humbug. "Drugs" aren't an automatic slide to hell.

I didn't say they were but I don't think that even a recreational cocaine user could be said to live a "healthy lifestyle". The image of "healthy lifestyle", in my mind, is vegetables-obsessed, omega 3 crazed, bio fed obsessive-compulsive.

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I was replying to LN, but it's perfectly possible to omega 3-obsessed et all and still smoke weed or drop E, for example. Anyway, I'm not sure that "healthy lifestyle" in this context means any more than not binge-drinking and eating their greens.

Plus, sometimes studies show contradictory results, that probably just means that one or both of the questions was misconceived.

Indeed. So I think more studies should be made before drawing too many conclusions...

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