Medical and Nonmedical Use of Prescription Drugs among Secondary School Students

Abstract

Purpose-The main objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of medical and nonmedical use of four categories of prescription drugs (opioid, stimulant, sleeping, and sedative/anxiety medication) in a racially diverse sample of secondary public school students in the Detroit metropolitan area. A secondary objective was to examine the association between the use of four categories of prescription medications and illicit drug use and probable drug abuse.Methods-In 2005, a Web-based survey was self-administered by 1086 secondary school students in grades seven through 12.Results-The sample consisted of 54% female, 52% White, 45% African American, and 3% from other racial categories. Forty-eight percent of the sample reported no lifetime use of four categories of prescription drugs (nonusers), 31.5% reported medically prescribed use only (medical users), 17.5% reported both medical and nonmedical use (medical/nonmedical users) and 3.3% reported nonmedical use only (nonmedical users). Multivariate analyses indicated that medical/nonmedical users and nonmedical users were significantly more likely than nonusers to report illicit drug use and probable drug abuse. Medical users generally reported similar or increased odds of illicit drug use and probable drug abuse than non-users.Conclusions-These findings provide evidence that nonmedical use of prescription drugs represents a problem behavior among secondary school students. KeywordsPrescription drugs; Epidemiology; Drug abuse; Adolescents; Survey research; School-based researchThe medical and nonmedical use of prescription drugs such as benzodiazepines, opioid analgesics, and stimulants has increased among adolescents and young adults in the United States during the past decade [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. According to the Monitoring the Future Study (MTF), the nonmedical use of several prescription medications by 12th graders in the United States is at its highest level in the past 15 years [1,2]. Because prescription drugs are necessary for the treatment of many pediatric disorders including anxiety, sleep, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), any examination of the nonmedical use and abuse of prescription drugs should occur within the larger context of proper medical use. With appropriate medical use considered, there are at least three studies that have examined In 2001, Poulin reported on a sample of secondary school students and found that nonmedical use of prescription stimulants was directly correlated to the number of prescription users in a particular school class who reported giving away their stimulant medication [14]. Although there were some limitations in the measures used by Poulin, the investigation represented one of the first attempts to examine medical and nonmedical use of prescription stimulants at the school class level [14]. In two subsequent studies, McCabe and colleagues reported that secondary school students who properly use prescription stimulant or pain medications were not at greater risk for subst...

Non-prescribed use of pain relievers among adolescents in the United States

“…They found that females generally were more likely than males to report both prescribed and non-prescribed use of prescription drugs and that both prescribed and non-prescribed use of pain relievers (14.3% of the study sample) was more common than non-prescribed use of pain relievers only (3.4% of the study sample). Non-prescribed use of pain relievers was also found to be associated with increased odds of probable drug abuse in this sample of secondary school students (McCabe et al, 2007a).…”

“…Previous studies have not examined gender-specific use of specific categories of nonprescribed pain relievers, use of alcohol and specific drug classes, age of onset of alcohol and other specific drug classes, and correlates of non-prescribed use (Boyd et al, 2006a;McCabe et al, 2007a;Sung et al, 2005). Additionally, physical health-related variables appear to be important correlates of non-prescribed use of pain relievers among adolescents (Boyd et al, 2006b;McCabe et al, 2007a) but are not examined by Sung et al (2005).…”

“…Together, the available data suggest that non-prescribed use of pain relievers is more prevalent among girls than among boys (e.g., Boyd et al, 2006a;McCabe et al, 2007a). In addition, the use of non-prescribed pain relievers may be influenced by medical exposure to pain relievers, by health conditions that could lead to non-prescribed use for self-medication purposes, and by the prior use of alcohol and other commonly used drugs (e.g., marijuana and inhalants) (Boyd et al, 2006a;McCabe et al, 2007a;Sung et al, 2005).…”

“…In addition, the use of non-prescribed pain relievers may be influenced by medical exposure to pain relievers, by health conditions that could lead to non-prescribed use for self-medication purposes, and by the prior use of alcohol and other commonly used drugs (e.g., marijuana and inhalants) (Boyd et al, 2006a;McCabe et al, 2007a;Sung et al, 2005). Given that sources of prescription pain relievers and reasons for initial non-prescribed use may differ from sources of illicit drugs (medical exposures vs. illicit channels) and reasons for nonmedical use (self-treatment for pain vs. getting a high), it would be important to determine whether non-prescribed use of pain relievers occurred among adolescents who had never initiated use of common drugs, such as marijuana or inhalants (Wu et al, 2005).…”

“…Additionally, physical health-related variables appear to be important correlates of non-prescribed use of pain relievers among adolescents (Boyd et al, 2006b;McCabe et al, 2007a) but are not examined by Sung et al (2005). Examining both deviance-related (e.g., criminality and other drug use) and health-related variables would help determine deviant and non-deviant patterns of use of non-prescribed pain relievers.…”