High IQ in Children Linked to Drug Use Later in Life

A new British study has found that people who scored well on IQ tests as children are more likely to be drug users as adults, especially women. Authors James White and G. David Batty published their study online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, and looked at data from almost 8,000 people over several decades to test what habits and qualities are tied to drug use.

The results suggest that men with high IQ scores at 5 years-old are 50 percent more likely to use drugs by the age of 30 than those with low IQ scores. High IQ scoring women at 5 years-old are twice as likely to use drugs than their low IQ counterparts. The authors are unclear why there is a link between intelligence and drug use.

Potential explanations are that intelligent people are open to new experiences, bored, or using drugs to cope with feeling different from their peers. Intelligence and drug use were linked independent of other factors like social class, household income, and other mental health problems.

[HT: Eric M. Jones)