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Addictive Behaviors

Prevalence and Correlates of Cannabis Use among Individuals with DSM-5 Social Anxiety Disorder: Findings from a Nationally Representative Sample

(PS1-A6) Prevalence and Correlates of Cannabis Use Among Individuals with DSM-5 Social Anxiety Disorder: Findings from a Nationally Representative Sample

Friday, November 17, 2023
8:30 AM – 9:30 AM PST
Location: Regency Ballroom, Level 7
Individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) have been shown to be at increased risk to use and abuse cannabis. Cannabis use disorder (CUD) has been shown to be highly comorbid with SAD in community, clinical, and epidemiological samples. Past research has hypothesized that individuals with SAD use cannabis to cope with their symptoms and mitigate “risks” in social situations. The present study sought to explore weekly cannabis use and CUD in an epidemiological sample of individuals with lifetime (N = 1255) and past-year (N = 980) SAD. In addition to prevalence, we explored demographic correlates, individuals symptoms, SAD symptoms severity, treatment seeking, and suicide attempts in both samples.

Notably, we found that at the symptom level, interference in relationships attributed to SAD was significantly related to increased lifetime (AOR = 1.76, p = .001) and past-year (AOR = 3.71, p = .013) weekly cannabis use as well as past-year CUD (AOR = 3.57, p < .001). Further weekly cannabis use was significantly related to SAD symptom severity even after covarying for demographics in both the lifetime (b = 0.11, p = .002) and past-year (b = 0.13, p = .001) samples. Weekly use, not CUD, was significantly related to increased treatment seeking (AOR = 1.40, p = .02). And both lifetime weekly cannabis use (AOR = 2.50, p < .001) and CUD (AOR = 1.70, p = 0.038) were significantly related to lifetime suicide attempts. After adding SAD symptom severity, weekly cannabis use remained significantly associated with suicide attempts (AOR = 2.33, p < .001).

The present findings support prior findings that SAD severity is related to greater cannabis use but extends them by exploring these in a more recent epidemiological sample using DSM-5 criteria. Individuals with SAD may seek cannabis in an attempt to cope, but future research should seek to explore whether this frequent use increases severity.