Completed Online survey - Can you spare a few minutes for research?

A colleague of mine (Kylie McCardle, Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia) is conducting an online questionnaire that examines the association between drug use (including alcohol) on mood, in different party environments.

The questionnaire is open to anyone over 18 years of age, is completely confidential and anonymous (there is no way to trace anyone's answers back to them). Your participation would be greatly appreciated.

To complete the study go to: <completed>

Is it safe to presume that being an online survey - the geographic local of the participant is irrelevant? Single drug users, or multi-drug users, etc? I'd like to bounce this thru at least a half dozen forums (NADD, EADD, ED, PD, OD, DC, etc), but need to know any restrictions.


Any smod or admin who sees the response, feel free to hit the appropriate forums with links (there is already an existing post in AusDD, so that one can be skipped).

Hi TLB

This one is actually international - she's just happy for anyone to respond. And they don't need to have used particularly drugs or any drugs - although she is needing to get a set proportion who are drug users, especially ecstasy/MDMA.

So, it's pretty much a case of advertise it whereever you like.

thanks heaps!
tronica

Well I've completed the survey for you

Buckle up - let's get some participants aware of this as we send it around the site

Edit - changed the title to hopefully draw in more responses.

Interesting Survey.

So this is an ok thing? Next time stuff comes bouncing through DC shoot me a PM first yeah? Or don't do as you please, you are two pay grades higher than me. Sir.

Just completed this survey.

I think it is a piece of shit, to be honest.

The questions seem to be set up to lead the surveys conclusions in a predetermined way. Anybody else get this impression?

yeah i kinda felt that yes i feel depressed after i take drugs, but i also feel depressed before i take them too, i'm a naturally depressed person, drugs do not alter or worsen this fact long term. hmmm.... it was also difficult to guess how many times i had taken certain drugs.

survey done, hope only good comes from it

I thought the questions were slightly biased as well, but you have that with just about any survey. Completed.

I'm not sure how to answer a question like;

Have you ever suffered from a psychological condition / episode / disorder (e.g. anxiety, depression, etc)?

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Does this mean have I ever been depressed or anxious or similar, or is a psychological condition / episode / disorder fundamentally more serious than just depression or anxiety?

I'd be highly suspicious of anyone who claimed never to have felt anxious ever in their entire lives.

Maybe if i was more educated in terms of psychological terminology I'd understand that a 'psychological condition / episode / disorder' was a specific and more serious incident than just being depressed or anxious.

I'm answering 'no' simply because I've never come close to being commited to an insane asylum and i assume your definition of 'psychological condition / episode / disorder' is fairly serious or else everyone would have to say 'yes'.

also;

When you are NOT under the influence of alcohol or other drugs, which of the following best describes your usual level of physical activity when you socialise / party INDOORS (e.g. club/rave, pub, someone's home)

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You've put 'club/rave, pub, someone's home' all in the same catagory, even though i think most people would answer quite differently if you asked each individually. I certainly know that my level of activity is much higher at a club/rave than a pub or someone's home.

How many times in your life have you used cannabis?

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How many times have i put a reefer to my lips, how many bong hits have i taken, how many days have i used for? It is very difficult to work out the correct way of answering this question.

Given i smoked pot most days of the year for about 3 years now. Call it 300 days in the year, so 1000 days usage (rouding up).

Does this mean i have used marajuana 1000 times?

If this is what you ment, why did you use the word 'uses' rather than 'days'?

If i smoke in the morning, then sober up, then smoke in the evening is that one use or two? It is definitely 1 day of use, but could easily be seen as 2 uses.

If there is more than one way to interpret a question and you ask enough people you'll get weird results.

What is your average number of trips of hallucinogens, or equivalent, consumed per use?

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I can't beleive you would even ask a question like this and expect to get usable results. You are basically asking how many doses of a substance the user usually uses without defining the size of a dose or even the substance.

What is your average number of tablets of barbiturates and/or benzodiazepines, or equivalent, consumed per use?

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And again, how can you ask this without defining which barbiturates and/or benzodiazepines and the strength of the pill? I don't take them myself but i know just from reading these forums that such things come in all sorts of different dosages per pill for any given drug.

The next page was a bit more specific in terms of time scale but was still pretty vague. I answered, as honestly as i could, 'felt a bit of the time' for all the questions except 'Have you ever felt depressed whilst under the influence of ecstasy?'. If you feel depressed whilst under the influence of ecstasy you are doing something wrong.

I don't even suffer from clinical depression, but since i can't honestly say i never feel depressed i have to answer 'felt a bit of the time'.

And the same criticisms can be applied to the 'anxiety' questions.

For the sadness questions how can I either 'I do not feel sadness' or 'I feel sad much of the time' or worse? Why is there nothing between fairly serious sadness and no sadness at all? Anyone who never feels sad is probably a scary psychopath (or lives in never never land).

I consider myself fairly normal in terms of sadness so i can't really answer honestly to any of the questions given as i feel sad more often than never but less often than 'much of the time'.

happyus said:

yeah i kinda felt that yes i feel depressed after i take drugs, but i also feel depressed before i take them too, i'm a naturally depressed person, drugs do not alter or worsen this fact long term. hmmm.... it was also difficult to guess how many times i had taken certain drugs.

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Have you ever felt depressed before, during or after using ecstasy?

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This question is basically asking have you ever felt depressed. There is not a single moment of my entire life that hasn't been before, during of after using ecstasy. This would be true of anyone who has ever taken ecstasy and even those that haven't if you assume the possibility that they might in the future and are thus currently 'before using'.

I'd be very interested to meet someone who could honestly claim never to have been depressed (I'd want to know what medication they were on) so I can only imagine there are very few people out there who can honestly answer 'no' to this question.

Because i can see no sense in asking a question to which there is only one answer (unless i am uncharitable and assume you are angling for certain results in your survey) i have to assume you mean depressed in the time directly before, during or after ecstasy use, but this leaves me guessing exactly how much time before, during or after, and precisely what you mean. I shouldn't have to guess the meaning of the questions.

I agree .. terrible survey. I got to page 4 and gave up.

I could go on with more criticisms, but suffice it to say that there are lots of questions that can be interpreted in different ways or that seem just downright silly.

The whole last section was asking me about changes in my mood response in the last 7 days (think it was 7). I've been having trouble sleeping the last few weeks now amongst other things, mostly due to internal stitches i have. Due to recovery from surgery i have not been taking any recreational drugs for this time either, but nowhere did it ask me if my symptoms where drug induced or not. This means that my results will be blended with people who have just come down from meth binges even though my problems have been caused by the legal actions of medical professionals.

Tronica - what will these results be used for? Hopefully nothing important. Will your researcher friend get a chance to see any of these comments?

hahaha i did it and laughed, felt like a bad person, laughed some more, and i think i made Evad think i was a little crazy. oops

done.

thought the hallucinogen question was stupid though "how many trips do you take at once"

WHAT THE FUCK MATE?

cacti!!!