Substance Abuse

Participants in the BrainWaves Cohort study were asked “In the last 12 months, have you taken something to get high or self-medicated with drugs not prescribed by your doctor (examples are legal highs, prescription medication, or other drugs)?”

The graphs show the distribution of responses to this question about drug use, and split by sex, on the first occasion that they completed the BrainWaves Cohort Study questionnaire.

The combined statistics show that 10.2% of responders have taken drugs more than once, with this percentage being higher for males (12.5%) compared to females (8.8%).

The BrainWaves Cohort Study has collected responses from over 24,000 people aged 16-18 in schools across the UK, over three time points in 2024 and 2025.