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  • Factors associated with the use of psychedelics, ketamine and MDMA among sexual and gender minority youths in Canada: a machine learning analysis

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Original research
Factors associated with the use of psychedelics, ketamine and MDMA among sexual and gender minority youths in Canada: a machine learning analysis
  1. Christoffer Dharma1,2,
  2. Esther Liu2,3,
  3. Daniel Grace1,
  4. Carmen Logie4,5,
  5. Alex Abramovich1,2,6,
  6. Nicholas Mitsakakis7,
  7. Bruce Baskerville8,
  8. Michael Chaiton1,2,9,10
  1. 1 University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  2. 2 Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  3. 3 Department of Human Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  4. 4 Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  5. 5 United Nations University Institute for Water Environment and Health, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
  6. 6 University of Toronto Department of Psychiatry, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  7. 7 Toronto Health Economics and Technology Assessment (THETA) Collaborative, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  8. 8 School of Pharmacy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
  9. 9 Institute for Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  10. 10 Ontario Tobacco Research Unit, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  1. Correspondence to Christoffer Dharma, University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Toronto, Canada; chris.dharma{at}mail.utoronto.ca

Abstract

Background Substance use is increasing among sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY). This increase may be due to changes in social norms and socialisation, or due to SGMY exploring the potential therapeutic value of drugs such as psychedelics. We identified predictors of psychedelics, MDMA and ketamine use.

Methods Data were obtained from 1414 SGMY participants who completed the ongoing longitudinal 2SLGBTQ+ Tobacco Project in Canada between November 2020 to January 2021. We examined the association between 80 potential features (including sociodemographic factors, mental health-related factors and substance use-related factors) with the use of psychedelics, MDMA and ketamine in the past year. Random forest classifier was used to identify the predictors most associated with reported use of these drugs.

Results 18.1% of participants have used psychedelics in the past year; 21.9% used at least one of the three drugs. Cannabis and cocaine use were the predictors most strongly associated with any of these drugs, while cannabis, but not cocaine use, was the one most associated with psychedelic use. Other mental health and 2SLGBTQ+ stigma-related factors were also associated with the use of these drugs.

Conclusion The use of psychedelics, MDMA and ketamine among 2SLGBTQ+ individuals appeared to be largely driven by those who used them together with other drugs. Depression scores also appeared in the top 10 factors associated with these illicit drugs, suggesting that there were individuals who may benefit from the potential therapeutic value of these drugs. These characteristics should be further investigated in future studies.

  • epidemiology
  • substance abuse
  • health surveys
  • public health

Data availability statement

Data are available on reasonable request. Data will be made available on reasonable request and pending ethics board approval.

https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2023-220748

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    Data availability statement

    Data are available on reasonable request. Data will be made available on reasonable request and pending ethics board approval.

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @michaelchaiton

    • Contributors CD and MC conceptualised the idea of the paper. CD and MC designed the analytic plan.

      CD ran the analysis. CD and EL did the literature review. CD and EL wrote a first draft of the manuscript. MC supervised the study. MC, DG, CL, AA, NM and BB acquired funding for the data sample used in the analysis. MC provided the primary supervision for the study and is the guarantor for the quality of the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

    • Funding This study was funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research (173073). CD is funded by the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.