Nonmedical Prescription Drug Use in a Nationally Representative Sample of Adolescents

Abstract

To compare the prevalence of nonmedical prescription drug use among adolescents residing in urban, suburban, and rural areas of the United States and to determine factors independently associated with rural nonmedical prescription drug use among adolescents aged 12 to 17 years.

Recreational use of prescription medications among Canadian young people: Identifying disparities

“…Students living in rural areas subject to strong urban influence reported use of these drugs most commonly. While these results build upon earlier findings that emphasize rural drug use patterns, 4,5,8 the patterns highlighted here emphasize an urbanrural connection that possibly relates to access to prescription medications. Contrary to a past study that suggested an urban-rural gradient, 29 we found that the highest levels occurred in rural areas that were more proximal and accessible to urban settings.…”

“…[3][4][5][6]8,19 However, the prevalence of such use here was slightly lower than levels reported by previous studies of Canadian youth. 4,6 This may because of our younger adolescent sample.…”

Nonmedical Use of Prescription Medications Among Adolescents in the United States: A Systematic Review

“…The latter group appears to be at a higher risk for other substance abuse problems [7]. As expected, motives are generally consistent with therapeutic indications for the drugs (i.e., students abuse tranquilizers to treat insomnia, pain relievers to treat physical pain, and so on) [7,10,12,40]. Stimulant use may be an exception, however, as the motivation to use stimulants experimentally or to get high may be just as common as use to increase concentration and alertness [7].…”

“…Adolescents residing in a two-parent household were significantly less likely to report any NMUPM [10,16], pain reliever use [16], or tranquilizer use [20]. Parental bonding (i.e., receipt of parental praise, parental monitoring, parental disapproval of drug use) was negatively associated with all classes of NMUPM in two studies [13,22], and adolescents' reported level of conflict with parents was associated with stimulant use in another study [21].…”

“…Studies have identified several other correlates of adolescent NMUPM, including residential instability [16,20], rurality [10,13,17], poor self-reported health [8,10,17], recent major depressive episode [10,16], posttraumatic stress disorder [18], mood disorder [8], mental health service utilization [16,17,21], and emergency room use [17]. NMUPM, particularly that of sedatives and pain relievers, has also been associated with sexual victimization [33,34].…”