ArticleJournal of affective disorders2024
Opioid misuse and mental health in college student populations: A national assessment.
Article in Journal of affective disorders, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Substance use and co-occurring mental health conditions among adolescents and young adults in North America: a systematic review.BMC psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Systematic review of the use of prescription and non-prescription psychotropic drugs and their relation with mental health in university population.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Applying the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) to understand college health administrator perceptions on adopting and implementing opioid overdose education and naloxone distribution (OEND) programs among universities nationally.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDespite growing concern about opioid misuse and mental health of college students, little is known about this population who are at high risk of co-occurrence and unmet needs. This national study aims to estimate the prevalence of opioid misuse, examine correlates with anxiety and depression symptoms, and quantify help-seeking behaviors among U.S. college students.
methodsData come from students in the Healthy Minds Study between 2017 and 2020 (n = 176,191). Validated screening tools assessed mental health symptoms (PHQ-9, GAD-7). Marginal effects of logistic regression models estimate the effect of opioid misuse on mental health symptoms, help-seeking and academic performance.
results782 students indicated past month opioid misuse. Student opioid misuse was associated with 24.1 percentage point increase in the probability of screening positive for anxiety/depression (p < 0.001) and 3.6 percentage point increase in the probability of informal help-seeking (p = 0.017). Less than half of students with opioid misuse and a positive depression/anxiety screen received any treatment in the past year. LIMITATIONS: Limitations to this study include: possible non-response bias, as it is unknown whether students with opioid misuse may be differentially-likely to respond to the survey; differing time frame for opioid misuse and mental health questions; and data was collected prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
conclusionsThis large, multi-campus study underlines the need for more partnership between substance use and mental health services on campus. It also highlights that college peers could receive training in ways to best help students who misuse opioids, directing them to on- or off-campus care.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.