Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Youth Substance Use and Substance-Related Risk Factors and Outcomes: Implications for Prevention, Treatment, and Policy.

Publication date: Aug 01, 2024

Youth substance use and substance use disorders (SUD) are major public health issues associated with significant societal cost. The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic and pandemic-related lockdowns, school closures, and social distancing dramatically impacted the daily lives of young people worldwide, resulting in major disruptions to normal developmental trajectories and complex (and at times opposing effects) on different SUD risk and protective factors, which contributed to inconsistent outcomes. During the COVID-19 pandemic, substance use prevalence rates decreased in the general population of US youth, but increased for certain vulnerable subgroups. Additionally, overdose deaths related to fentanyl rose significantly among US youth.

Concepts	Keywords
Coronavirus	Adolescent
Covid	Child
Daily	COVID-19
Lockdowns	COVID-19 pandemic
Pandemic	Health Policy
	Humans
	Pandemics
	Risk Factors
	Risk factors
	SARS-CoV-2
	Substance use treatment
	Substance-Related Disorders
	United States
	Vulnerable subgroups
	Youth substance use

Semantics

Type	Source	Name
disease	MESH	COVID-19 Pandemic
disease	MESH	Substance Use
disease	VO	population
drug	DRUGBANK	Fentanyl

Original Article

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