Analgesic teenagers are more likely to abuse other harmful substances, like adults, predict a recent study published in the journal Pain in July 2016. Beginning with sick media abuse, adolescents become more illegal drugs when they become adults. Researchers at the University of Michigan (UM) urge parents to properly dispose of the remaining drugs at home. This simple act of parents can prevent adolescents from abusing any pain medication at home.
The study used data from the Future Monitoring Survey conducted by the UM and funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse Control (NIDA). He controlled the use of alcohol and other drugs among 4,000 senior high school students (1976-1996) to adulthood (1993-2013).
UM researchers stated that adolescents who used painkillers, such as codeine, hydrocodone, oxycodone, and other prescription opioids, for non-medical purposes, developed a higher propensity to substance abuse at the age of 35.
In contrast, study lead author Sean Esteban McCabe, a research professor at the UM Institute for Women's Studies and Gender Studies, argued that the use of opioid pain killers in adolescence does not increase the risk of substance abuse in adulthood.
Increased vigilance required when prescribing opioids
The study showed that approximately 25 percent of adolescents showed lifelong medical use of opioids by prescription or non-drug use of painkillers by prescription at the age of 18. More than 90 percent of adolescents who reported non-medical use of opioids by prescription at the age of 18 did not continue to use them until the age of 35.
But in about 53 percent of adolescents who used painkillers to treat non-medical purposes at the age of 18, two or more symptoms of a substance abuse disorder were found at the age of 35.
Researchers have also observed the trend that more than 25 percent of adolescents who are medically using prescription opioids also had a history of non-medical use of such drugs at the age of 18. This greatly increased the risk of illicit use of opioids in adulthood. This phenomenon could lead to the fact that more than a third of adolescents who reported non-medical use of opioids used the remaining drugs for their own medicines.
“These data suggest that health workers and parents need increased vigilance when opioids are prescribed and controlled for use among adolescents in order to reduce the subsequent abuse of opioids and substance abuse,” said McCabe.
Roadmap recovery
Prescription drug addiction has reached an epidemic in the United States, and millions of people die from overdoses every year. To curb this problem, joint efforts are required of everyone affected or untouched by this disaster. Eliminating residual drugs responsibly, as emphasized in the study, is an important preventive measure.
