Resilience characteristics mitigate tendency for harmful alcohol and illicit drug use in adults with a history of childhood abuse: A cross-sectional study of 2024 inner-city men and women

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Kerry Ressler, Emory University; Bekh Bradley-Davino, Emory University; Aliza Wingo, Emory University; B Bradley, Atlanta VA Med Ctr
• Language: English
• Date: 2014-04-01
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: Published by Elsevier Inc.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2014.01.007
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Journal of Psychiatric Research
• ISSN: 0022-3956
• Volume: 51
• Issue: 1
• Start Page: 93
• End Page: 99
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was also supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number UL1TR000454.; This work was primarily supported by National Institute of Mental Health (MH071537 and MH096764 to KJR), the VA Clinical Science R&D Career Development Award and NARSAD (to APW), and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (to BB).
• Keywords: CONNOR-DAVIDSON RESILIENCE; Childhood abuse; SEXUAL-ABUSE; DEPRESSION; POSTTRAUMATIC-STRESS-DISORDER; RISK-FACTOR; Alcohol use; Psychiatry; COMORBIDITY; PSYCHIATRIC-DISORDERS; Resilience; Risk; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Science & Technology; PREVALENCE; PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES; Substance use; Trauma; TRAUMA

Abstract

Resilience refers to abilities to cope adaptively with adversity or trauma. A common psychological sequella of childhood abuse or other traumatic experiences is substance use problems. There are, however, very limited data on relationships among resilience traits, childhood abuse, and alcohol or drug use problems. Hence, we aimed to examine associations between resilience characteristics and lifetime alcohol and illicit drug use in 2024 inner-city adults with high rates of childhood abuse and other trauma exposure. In this cross-sectional study, resilience was assessed with the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, childhood abuse with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, lifetime alcohol and illicit drug use with the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test and Drug Abuse Screening Test. Associations between resilience and substance use were examined with linear regression models, adjusting for trauma load, age, and sex. We found that resilience characteristics mitigated tendency for lifetime alcohol use problems both as a main effect (β=-0.11; p=0.0014) and an interaction with severity of childhood abuse (β=-0.06; p=0.0115) after trauma severity, age, and sex were controlled for. Similarly, resilience reduced lifetime illicit drug use both as a main effect (β=-0.03; p=0.0008) and as an interaction with severity of childhood abuse (β=-0.01; p=0.0256) after trauma load, age, and sex were adjusted for. Our findings add to a nascent body of literature suggesting that resilience characteristics mitigate risks not only for PTSD, major depression, and suicidality, but also for substance use problems in adults exposed to childhood abuse or other traumatic experiences. © 2014.