Developmental course of non‐medical use of prescription drugs from adolescence to adulthood in the United States: national longitudinal data

Abstract

Aims To identify the developmental course of nonmedical use of four separate prescription drug classes (opioids, sedatives, stimulants, and tranquilizers) by examining the general functional growth and related covariates during the transition from adolescence to adulthood in the United States. Design Nationally representative probability samples of high school seniors were followed longitudinally across five waves (waves 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5: modal ages 18, 19/20, 21/22, 23/24, and 25/26 years respectively). Setting Data were collected via self-administered questionnaires to high school seniors and young adults in the United States. Participants The sample consisted of nearly 72,000 individuals in 30 cohorts (high school senior years of 1977–2006) who participated in at least one wave. Measurements Self-reports of annual nonmedical use of prescription opioids, sedatives, stimulants, and tranquilizers. Findings The annual nonmedical use of prescription opioids, sedatives, stimulants, and tranquilizers was highest at wave 1 over the five waves. There was a consistent descending path (linear and quadratic slopes, p < 001) in annual nonmedical use from baseline across all four prescription drug classes (e.g., opioids linear slope = −.043 and opioids quadratic slope = .034, p <.001). While the annual nonmedical use of stimulants declined over time (linear slope = .063, p <.01; quadratic slope = −.133, p <.001), the same decrease was not observed for the annual nonmedical use of prescription opioids, sedatives or tranquilizers when controlling for sociodemographic and substance use behaviors at baseline. The covariates associated with the general functional growth differed across the four prescription drug classes. Conclusions The nonmedical use of prescription opioids, sedatives, stimulants, and tranquilizers appears to peak during late adolescence, suggesting preventive intervention efforts should be initiated in early adolescence. The developmental course of nonmedical use is not the same among all four classes of prescription drugs, suggesting each drug class warrants individual research.

Developmental trajectories of illicit drug use, prescription drug misuse and cannabis practices among young adult cannabis users in Los Angeles

“…Relatively stable high rates of cocaine use in our study are consistent with the dominance of a persistent use trajectory group in a study of cocaine users [11]. Decreasing prescription drug misuse is similar to findings from an earlier study of young adults showing decreasing trends in misuse after the age of 18 [19]. Notably, the very low prevalence of heroin use [20] and decrease in misuse of prescription opioids in our sample are reflective of the national trends observed among adults aged 18 to 25 years [1,36].…”

“…First, our study explored trajectories of illicit drug use and prescription drug misuse separately and within the same study among a population of young adult cannabis users. In contrast, all previous trajectory studies have been focused either on illicit [9,11,13], prescription [19,45] or illicit and prescription drug use/misuse as a single category [10,18,46]. Further research is needed to prospectively monitor patterns of illicit drug use and prescription drug misuse as well as their correlates within a population of young adults transitioning into adulthood as recreational cannabis continues to be legally available.…”

“…Drug use trajectory studies of young adults have found a high degree of overlap between intensity of cannabis use and frequency of drug use within other drug use trajectories [13,18,19]. A cross-sectional study of young adult cannabis users found a positive association between illicit drug use and cannabis concentrates use, and greater odds of prescription drug misuse among cannabis edibles users while controlling for legal access to medical cannabis [20].…”

Non-medical use of prescription drugs by young men: impact of potentially traumatic events and of social-environmental stressors

“…For instance, opioid pain medication was used by adolescents to ‘relieve pain’, rather than to ‘get high’ (McCabe, West, & Boyd, 2013). These different preferences have also been shown to evolve distinctly for each medication over time, further reinforcing the idea that they are chosen with specific regard to a perceived individual problem and the precise effects that the substance can have on it (McCabe, Kloska, Veliz, Jager, & Schulenberg, 2016). In addition, it is well established that NMUPD by young people often shows concomitant use of alcohol or illicit substances (Boyd, Esteban McCabe, & Teter, 2006; Ford, 2009; Kelly, Wells, Pawson, LeClair, & Parsons, 2014).…”

Development of a fluvoxamine detection system using a Quenchbody, a novel fluorescent biosensor

“…The misuse of prescription drugs, such as opioids, sedatives, stimulants, and tranquilizers, represent a worldwide public health concern . Psychotropic drugs have been ranked as having one of the greatest rates of exposure increase, particularly in the past decade.…”