Children with higher IQ scores, especially girls are at a greater risk of experiencing illegal drugs and becoming addicted to such substances.
Researchers at Cardiff University, UK warn that intelligent people's curiosity and openness may lead them to addiction especially when they believe taking drugs for two or three times may not be risky.
The finding was based on a study of more than 7,900 British people born in early April 1970, whose IQ was tested at the ages of 5 and 10.
Participants were also interviewed at ages 16 and 30 to check if they had any symptoms of psychological problems and drug abuse history.
Overall, at the age of 30, about 35 percent of the studied men and 16 percent of women told researchers that they had smoked marijuana at least once in the previous year while 9 percent of men and 4 percent of women used cocaine.
For other drugs Dr. James White and colleagues discovered a similar pattern, with overall drug use two times as prevalent in men as among women participants.
Analyses showed that the rate of substance use was higher among participants whose childhood IQ tests were higher, researchers wrote in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Men whose IQ was higher at the age of 5 years were approximately 50 percent more likely to have taken ecstasy, several illegal drugs, and amphetamines when they were 30 years old.
The risk was even significantly higher for female participants, and women with a high IQ score were more than two times as likely to have used cocaine and cannabis at the age of 30.
The study showed the same link between participants' IQ scores at the age of 10 and their history of using ecstasy, cannabis, multiple drugs and cocaine.
“Although most studies have suggested that higher child or adolescent IQ prompts the adoption of a healthy lifestyle as an adult, other studies have linked higher childhood IQ scores to excess alcohol intake and alcohol dependency in adulthood,” said researchers who found the same link between IQ and drug abuse risk.
“The likely mechanism is openness to experience,” White concluded saying “and, I think, it's also this idea of having an educated view of risk as well.”
Previous findings also suggested that highly intelligent kids tend to be easily bored and targeted by other children for being different, “either of which could conceivably increase vulnerability to using drugs as an avoidant coping strategy,” researchers added.
Above article thanks to: Press TV
