{ "abstract": "Background\n\nSubstance use is a common problem among young people in Latin America and has significant consequences for their mental health. One of the variables associated with the use of psychoactive substances is stressful life events (SLEs). SLEs can include traumatic experiences, significant losses, interpersonal conflicts, financial difficulties, among others.Objective\n\nTo explore the association between the number of SLEs and psychoactive substance use in adolescents and young adults from deprived urban settings.Methods\n\nIn this cross-sectional study, adolescents and young adults were recruited from disadvantaged urban environments in Buenos Aires, Bogota and Lima. Data were collected between April 2021 and November 2022. The number of SLEs experienced in lifetime until a year ago was assessed using an adaptation of the Adolescent Appropriate Life Events Scale, which asks about 30 SLEs. Psychoactive substance use in the last three months was self-rated and six outcomes were analyzed: alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, tranquilizers, other drugs, and use of three or more substances. Crude and adjusted prevalence ratios (PRs) were estimated using generalized linear models of the Poisson family with log link and robust variances for each outcome.Results\n\n2378 participants' data were analyzed. Participants experiencing between 10 and 22 SLEs more than a year ago had higher prevalence rates of psychoactive substance use than participants between 0 and 5 SLEs in four of six outcomes: tobacco (PR: 1.69, 95% CI 1.37-2.08), alcohol (PR: 1.23, 95% CI 1.13-1.35), marijuana (PR: 1.75, 95% CI 1.35-2.26), and three or more psychoactive substances (PR: 1.85, 95% CI 1.35-2.53) in the last three months.Conclusion\n\nExperiencing a higher number of SLEs was associated with the use of tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and three or more psychoactive substances in adolescents and young adults from disadvantaged urban areas of Bogota, Buenos Aires, and Lima. Recognizing young people who have gone through multiple stressful life events at an early stage is essential, so that interventions can be implemented to prevent them from turning to psychoactive substances.Clinical trial number\n\nNot applicable.", "abstract_shown": true, "affiliations": [ "CRONICAS Center of Excellence in Chronic Diseases, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru. rubiparedesa@gmail.com.", "CRONICAS Center of Excellence in Chronic Diseases, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru.", "Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia.", "Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia.", "Hospital Universitario San Ignacio, Bogotá, Colombia.", "Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, School of Medicine, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.", "Unit for Social and Community Psychiatry, Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.", "Centre for Psychosocial Medicine, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany." ], "article_type": "research article", "arxiv": null, "author_total": 13, "authors": [ { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Rubí Paredes-Angeles", "orcid": "0000-0003-3669-4932" }, { "affs": [ 1 ], "name": "Maria Lazo-Porras", "orcid": "0000-0003-0062-5476" }, { "affs": [ 1 ], "name": "Adriana Carbonel", "orcid": "0009-0000-7923-8537" }, { "affs": [ 2, 3, 4 ], "name": "Carlos Gómez-Restrepo", "orcid": "0000-0002-9013-5384" }, { "affs": [ 5 ], "name": "Luis Ignacio Brusco", "orcid": "0000-0002-1846-8686" }, { "affs": [ 6 ], "name": "Diliniya Stanislaus Sureshkumar", "orcid": "0000-0002-2384-3321" }, { "affs": [ 2 ], "name": "José Miguel Uribe-Restrepo", "orcid": "0000-0003-4284-7886" }, { "affs": [ 5 ], "name": "Natividad Olivar", "orcid": "0000-0003-4598-6865" }, { "affs": [ 6 ], "name": "Catherine Fung", "orcid": "0000-0002-3220-6930" }, { "affs": [ 5 ], "name": "Fernando Esnal", "orcid": "0009-0009-0110-8842" }, { "affs": [ 3 ], "name": "Natalia Godoy-Casasbuenas", "orcid": "0000-0002-1262-6436" }, { "affs": [ 7 ], "name": "Stefan Priebe", "orcid": "0000-0001-9864-3394" }, { "affs": [ 1 ], "name": "Francisco Diez-Canseco", "orcid": "0000-0002-7611-8190" } ], "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/d9vyh9mpzrrbr.bib", "cited_by": 0, "doi": "10.1186/s12888-026-08357-7", "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13700170", "id": "d9vyh9mpzrrbr", "issns": [ "1471-244X" ], "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42928162", "language": "eng", "licence": "CC-BY-NC-ND", "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-ND", "licence_source": "article", "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/", "metadata_licence": null, "native_subjects": [ [ "openalex", "2713|Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes" ] ], "openalex": "W7223569570", "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13700170?pdf=render", "pmcid": "PMC13700170", "pmid": "42928162", "published": "2026-10-26", "publisher": null, "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/d9vyh9mpzrrbr.ris", "sources": [ { "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:21:18Z", "native_id": "MED:42928162", "source": "europepmc", "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42928162" } ], "subjects": [ { "field": "medicine", "origin": "openalex:2713|Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes", "subfield": "epidemiology-public-health" } ], "title": "Association between stressful life events and psychoactive substance use in adolescents and young adults from Argentina, Colombia and Peru.", "title_text": "Association between stressful life events and psychoactive substance use in adolescents and young adults from Argentina, Colombia and Peru.", "type": "peer-reviewed", "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:21:18Z", "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/d9vyh9mpzrrbr", "venue": "BMC psychiatry", "versions": [] }