Citation

Seltz M, Radnitz C, Bauman WA. J. Spinal Cord Med. 2004; 27(1): 18-21.

Affiliation

Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, New Jersey 07666, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Academy of Spinal Cord Injury Professionals, Publisher Maney Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

15156932

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Substance misuse frequently is correlated with serious trauma such as spinal cord injury (SCI). Two hypotheses to this effect are (a) substance abuse predates injury and is a risk factor or trigger for serious injury such as SCI; or (b)substance abuse begins postinjury, and alcohol or other drugs are used to ameliorate the physical and emotional distress that result from SCI. METHODS: To test these two hypotheses, 1 4 pairs of monozygotic twins, in which 1 of each pair had sustained an SCI, were studied. The twin without SCI was used as a control for preinjury substance misuse status for the twin with SCI. RESULTS: No significant differences between SCI and non-SCI co-twins' substance use patterns were found. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that drinking patterns might not be significantly affected by SCI and that substance misuse might precede injury.

Language: en