Polydrug use and recreational motives are associated with lower posttraumatic symptoms in survivors of a mass trauma event

Among October 7, 2023 Nova Festival mass-trauma survivors, the high drug-load latent class (mean 4.6 drug types) had lower PCL-5 PTSD symptom scores than the low drug-load class (mean 1.5).

• Why it matters: Drug use after mass trauma is common, yet how polydrug patterns and motives relate to later PTSD symptoms remains unclear.
• What they did: Survivors reported six drug types and five motives at 1–6, 8–12, and 17–24 months post-attack; latent class analyses used TP2, and regressions/mixed-effects models linked class membership to PCL-5 while adjusting for age, sex, time since trauma, and TP1 PCL-5.
• The result: At TP2, 70% reported polydrug use; self-medication-motive users had higher PCL-5 than recreational-motive users, and recreational-motive users showed lower PCL-5 than self-medication and primarily cannabis users, with higher polydrug use linked to lower PTSD symptom scores through TP3.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.