Abstract

Objective: The current study sought to find out to what degree the linkage exists between sex, stress levels, and self-medication activities. Method: We used an anonymous survey in both English and Spanish and surveyed 615 participants, of which the average age was 36.5 years. For gender, participants coded themselves as “male” (n = 350) and “female” (n = 243). We did not request participants to code ethnicity. We used a demographics questionnaire, a list of substances used for self-medication along with some questions about self-medication activities, and the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen & Williamson, 1988). Results: We found a significant correlation between stress and the number of different self-medication substances tried or used only for those participants who identified as female. Further, our results indicated that reported stress, as evaluated by the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen & Williamson, 1988), explained a significant amount of variance in the total number of substances tried or used. These results support a link between sex, stress, and self-medication activities. Conclusion: The results help to contextualize the reality that individuals may be seeking out substances to handle negative situations

Document Type

Article

Source Publication

Open Access Journal of Addiction and Psychology

Version

Published Version

Publication Date

11-20-2025

Volume

8

Issue

2

First Page

1

Last Page

4

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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