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Prescription drug misuse (PDM) is a mounting public health concern in the U.S., particularly among college students. The field's reliance on cross-sectional designs and limited controls for other substance use has failed to capture the specific role of misuse for longer-term health. Therefore, the present study tested associations between trajectories of PDM problems and college students' mental health and subjective happiness over time. Participants were 300 students who completed a baseline assessment (T1) and follow-ups every 6 months for two years (T2-T5). Participants self-reported problems associated with PDM and mental health. Results from univariate latent growth models indicated that problems with PDM were initially on an increasing trajectory. Based on parallel process models, problems with PDM were concurrently associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms, disinhibition, callousness/aggression, and lower levels of subjective happiness at T1. Further, we found support for parallel trajectories between PDM problems and both depressive symptoms and general disinhibition. Participants whose PDM problems were on an increasing (worsening) trajectory at baseline showed an increase in depressive symptoms and general disinhibition over the next two years. Participants whose PDM problems accelerated over time (got worse at a faster and faster rate over time) also showed a significant increase in their depressive symptoms over time. Most findings, however, were no longer statistically significant in sensitivity analyses that controlled for alcohol and other drug problems. Findings highlight college as an important time for interventions to prevent substance use and its associated negative consequence on later young adult mental health., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Although published research based on retrospective survey designs has established prescription drug misuse as a serious health issue for individuals and society, misuse behavior has not been investigated as it occurs in daily life and important relationships. To address this gap, young adult romantic couples were recruited from the community to participate in an experience sampling study. Participants were identified through phone screen procedures as having engaged in recent prescription drug misuse behavior. Participants (n=46 couples) completed electronic diary reports throughout the day for 10days, tapping momentary affect, sexual experiences, prescription drug misuse, and alcohol and other drug use. Dyadic multilevel modeling revealed a more consistent pattern of associations between prescription drug misuse and problematic affective and behavioral outcomes for female partners than male partners. Specifically, during epochs of females' prescription drug misuse, they experienced relatively higher levels of negative affect and sexual regret. Also, females who misused prescriptions more during the study period evidenced lower levels of sexual enjoyment and engaged in more unprotected sex, alcohol use, and heavy alcohol use in daily life. Males' in-the-moment prescription drug misuse was not associated with their concurrent outcomes, though males with relatively more misuse across the reporting period were more likely to engage in heavy drinking. Couples' time together emerged as a moderator of prescription drug misuse in daily life: Females who spent relatively more time with their partner across the study were less likely to engage in misuse, and proportion of time spent together moderated several of the momentary misuse-outcome linkages. This study supports the use of ecologically-valid sampling methods for characterizing young adults' prescription drug misuse in daily life and relationship contexts., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)