11 Mar Kids Who Use Borrowed Drugs More Likely To Use Other Drugs
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Yanning Wang, MS
Statistical Research Coordinator
Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine
Department of Health Outcomes and Policy
University of Florida College of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: A number of new stimulant medications have been approved for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) treatment in the past decade. The expansion of this market, along with the increase in ADHD diagnosis, provides greater availability of these drugs. This has raised public health concerns about potential non-medical use of prescription stimulants. Our study analyzed data from the National Monitoring of Adolescent Prescription Stimulants Study, which recruited and surveyed youth aged 10 to 18 years from entertainment venues in 10 US cities. We found that 6.8% of youth (750 out of 11,048) used prescription stimulants in the past 30 days. Among those 750 youth, more than half reported some type of non-medical use, and using someone else’s medication was the most common form (88.4 %). We investigated the difference between two subgroups of non-medical users: youth who only used stimulants non-medically, and those who had a prescription and reported non-medical use in the past 30 days. We found youth who only used stimulants non-medically at higher rate of using other substances and more likely to have close friends who have tried other drugs.
MedicalResearch.com: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?
Response: It is important for clinicians and parents to counsel youth who have prescription stimulants to never share their medications. When a prescription drug monitoring program is available, health care providers are encouraged to use it to monitor their young patients’ medication use.
MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Response: Future research should look at the specific source of the non-medically used stimulants (e.g., friends, family members, doctors, etc.) and how these stimulants are diverted to youth.
MedicalResearch.com: Thank you for your contribution to the MedicalResearch.com community.
Citation:
Drug Alcohol Depend. 2015 Dec 1;157:83-9. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2015.10.006. Epub 2015 Oct 13.
Differentiating patterns of prescription stimulant medical and nonmedical use among youth 10-18 years of age.
Wang Y1, Cottler LB2, Striley CW1.
Note: Content is Not intended as medical advice. Please consult your health care provider regarding your specific medical condition and questions.
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Yanning Wang (2016). Kids Who Use Borrowed Drugs More Likely To Use Other Drugs MedicalResearch.com
Last Updated on March 11, 2016 by Marie Benz MD FAAD