8. According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, teens are abusing Rx and OTC drugs because of their belief in their safety and for reasons beyond getting high, such as:
14. Teens abuse medications in a number of ways:Swallow the pills or drink liquids, such as cough syrup Crush pills before snorting or smoking the powder Melt or dissolve the medications and inject them Mix prescription drugs with alcohol and street drugs into cocktails
15. Statistics Monitoring the Future survey (on Prescription Drugs) Prescription Drug abuse increased from 2.8% of High School students to 7.8% National Survey on Drug Use and Health In 2002, 4.7 used prescription drugs non-medically In 2003, 4.0% youth ages 12-17yrs and 6.0% young adults ages 18-25 reported nonmedical use of prescription drugs.
16. Statistics Cont’d Nearly 1 in 5 teens reported abusing prescription medications that were not written out to them at least once 30% of adolescents reported having a friend abusing prescription stimulants In 2004, 9% of adolescents aged 12 to 17 used prescription drugs
17. Influences on Prescription Drug Use Peer group approval Teens are under the impression their prescription drug use is responsible Teen perception that prescription drugs are safer than illicit street drugs Advertisements for prescription drugs has increased significantly. $1.8 billion (1999) to $4.2 billion (2004) on prescription drug ads
18. Who’s supplying prescription drugs? Peers with illnesses Parents’ medicine cabinets Physicians 43% do not ask patients about prescription drug abuse 1/3 do not refer to patient records for drug abuse
19. Professions concerned about this issue.. People involved: Parents Teachers SchoolAdministrators Coaches Counselors Pharmacists Pediatricians Adolescent Medicine Providers Emergency Room Providers Club Owners Organizations involved: Office of National Drug Control National Institute on Drug Abuse The Partnership for a Drug-Free America CDC DPH American Association of Position Control Center (AAPCC)
20. How to get parents involved ? Begin by educating yourself: Educate yourself about medications that kids are abusing and share this information with others who are in contact with your children- such as school administrators, coaches, counselors, etc Communicate with your children Discuss the subject with your teens See what your kids know about this issue Explain to them this can be LETHAL and shouldn’t be done without parents knowing
21. Safe guard medications at home and other places Ask your healthcare provider if any meds being prescribed for your family have a potential for abuse Take an inventory of Rx and OTC meds in your home
22. What are we doing about it? National All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting (NASPER) $60 million from 2006-2010 for federal grants to establish and support prescription drug monitoring programs State and Local agencies are making public efforts to educate authorities, physicians, pharmacists, patients, and families about the effects of prescription drug abuse.
23. What are we doing about it? Cont’d Takeback Initiative program The Drug Enforcement Administration and Law Enforcement work together to establish programs that take back old and/or unused prescription drugs WIVBTV: Prescription drop-off to fight abuse http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUxbNDkFesY
24. Challenges Families and Communities taking the Lead Physicians getting the training Monitoring every prescription drug abuser.
25. Questions: What obstacles do you think parents will face when addressing this issue with their children? How do you think a discussion regarding this topic would be different between a physician and a community health worker versus a parent and his/her child?
26. References Bright, George. 3008. Abuse of Medications, Employed for the treatment of ADHD: Results from a large-scale community survey. The Medscale Journal of Medicine, 10 (5), 111-115. Friedman, Richard A. 2006. The Changing Faces of Teenage Drug Abuse – The Trend Toward Prescription Drugs. The New England Journal of Medicine. 354 1448-1550 The Gazette. 2010. Rise in U.S. Prescription Drug Abuse: Study. Montrealgazette.com Goodnough, Abby. 2010. A Wave of Addiction and Crime, with the Medicine Cabinet to Blame. The New York Times Kelly, B,C., and Parsons, J.T. 2007. Prescription Drug Misuse among Club Drug-Using Young Adults. Journal of Drug-Alcohol Abuse, 33 (6), 875-884. Manchikanti, Laxmaiah, Md. 2006. Prescription Drug Abuse: What is Bing Done to Address This New Drug Epidemic? Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug, and Human Resources. Pain Physician, 9 (4) 287-321 National Institute on Drug Abuse. Research Report Series – Prescription Drugs -Abuse & addictions. http://www.nida.nih.gov/researchreports/prescription/prescription5.html Plank, Dawndy Mercer. 2010. Program Will Take Back Your Prescription Meds. file:///Users/teacher/Desktop/story.asp.html Setik, J., Bond, R., and Ho, M. 2009. Adolescent Prescription ADHD Medication Abuse is Rising Along with prescriptions for these medications. Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, 124, 875-880. White, AG., Birnbaum, H.G. Schiller, M., Tang, J., and Katz, W.P. 2009. Analytic Models to Identify Patients at Risk for Prescription Opioid Abuse. The American Journal of Managed Care, 15 (12), 891-906.
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