take this one, it gives you colours

[the_siobhan]

Is anybody aware of any studies looking at a correlation between depression and recreational drug use?

[EDIT] From the perspective of the drug use happening before the depression. I'm well aware of the other way around.

Comments

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

T probably should have been more specific in my original question - I was wondering if there were any kind of studies that actually showed that the drug use potentially caused the depression.

I understand that, and that's where you got me thinking, in terms of how you would actually prove causation. I think plenty of studies have glibly assumed causation, but it's actually very hard to prove.

I understand why your friends identified self-medication - mental illness has a long history of being seen as evil, defective, sinful, basically bad and "other". When you are that "other", you have to think differently about it. And in this case, I think it's at least as likely to be correct.

(I've been diagnosed with mental illness myself, but don't do recreational drugs - I react badly to even moderate amounts of either caffeine or alcohol; aspirin makes me vomit, etc so I never had any urge to try self-medicating anything :-)