TUESDAY, May 28, 2002 (HealthDayNews) --
New York City residents smoked more cigarettes, used more marijuana and drank more alcohol in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, says a new survey.
Almost a third of the Manhattan people surveyed reported an increase in substance abuse in the five to eight weeks after Sept. 11. One quarter of them said they drank more alcohol, 10 percent smoked more cigarettes and 3.2 percent used more marijuana.
The survey, done by researchers at the New York Academy of Medicine, appears in the June 1 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.
The survey included 988 people who live in areas close to the World Trade Center site. They were interviewed between Oct. 16 and Nov. 15, 2001, about their habits before and after the attacks.
For the week before the attacks, 22.6 percent of the people smoked cigarettes, 59.1 percent drank alcohol and 4.4 percent used marijuana. After Sept. 11, 23.4 reported smoking cigarettes, 64.4 percent drank alcohol and 5.7 percent smoked marijuana.
Among those who smoked, almost 10 percent reported smoking at least an extra pack of cigarettes a week. Among the people who drank alcohol, more than 20 percent said they were having at least one extra drink a day.
The researchers found people who reported increases in their use of cigarettes and marijuana were more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress and depression, while those who had an increase in alcohol use were more likely to only have depression.
More information
The stress from the terror attacks may not yet have faded for many. The National Institute on Drug Abuse has a special report on the connection between the two.
