Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University, Universitaetsstrasse 25, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany.
Institute for Sociology and Social Psychology, University of Cologne, Universitaetsstrasse 24, 50931 Cologne, Germany.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jun 22;19(13):7632. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19137632.
This study examines how work stress affects the misuse of prescription drugs to augment mental performance without medical necessity (i.e., cognitive enhancement). Based on the effort-reward imbalance model, it can be assumed that a misalignment of effort exerted and rewards received increases prescription drug misuse, especially if employees overcommit. To test these assumptions, we conducted a prospective study using a nationwide web-based sample of the working population in Germany ( = 11,197). Effort, reward, and overcommitment were measured at and the 12 month frequency of prescription drug misuse for enhancing cognitive performance was measured at a one-year follow-up (). The results show that 2.6% of the respondents engaged in such drug misuse, of which 22.7% reported frequent misuse. While we found no overall association between misuse frequency and effort, reward, or their imbalance, overcommitment was significantly associated with a higher misuse frequency. Moreover, at low levels of overcommitment, more effort and an effort-reward imbalance discouraged future prescription drug misuse, while higher overcommitment, more effort, and an imbalance increased it. These findings suggest that a stressful work environment is a risk factor for health-endangering behavior, and thereby underlines the importance of identifying groups at risk of misusing drugs.
本研究考察了工作压力如何影响未经医学需要（即认知增强）而滥用处方药物来提高精神表现。基于努力-回报失衡模型，可以假设努力与回报的不匹配会增加处方药物滥用，特别是如果员工过度承诺。为了检验这些假设，我们使用德国全国性的网络工作人群样本进行了一项前瞻性研究（n=11197）。在和 12 个月时测量了努力、回报和过度承诺，在一年随访时（）测量了为提高认知表现而滥用处方药物的频率。结果表明，2.6%的受访者存在这种药物滥用，其中 22.7%报告了频繁滥用。虽然我们没有发现滥用频率与努力、回报或其失衡之间的总体关联，但过度承诺与更高的滥用频率显著相关。此外，在低水平的过度承诺下，更多的努力和努力-回报失衡会抑制未来的处方药物滥用，而更高的过度承诺、更多的努力和失衡会增加这种滥用。这些发现表明，压力大的工作环境是危害健康行为的风险因素，从而强调了识别有药物滥用风险的群体的重要性。
