Preventing Teen Abuse of Prescriptions and Over the Counter

Medications

Rayna Briceno and Yailka Cardenas

Health Education and Program Planning

Mission Statement: To educate the community about harmful trends involving teens and the misuse of prescription (Rx) and over the counter (OTC)medications

Goals: To give stakeholders basic knowledge of some of the risk factors involved in teens abusing Rx and OTC medications To significantly reduce the number of teens aged 13 to 19 who misuse and/or abuse Rx and OTC medications

Objectives:

• To better understand the trend for Rx and OTC medication abuse among teens

• To increase the communication parents have with teens aged 13 to 19 about this topic

• To increase the number of stakeholders involved in this issue

• To reduce the number of Rx and OTC medications left unattended in reach of teens

Background:

For teens, prescription and over the counter medications may have appeal for a number of reasons: Easily accessible Perceived as safe

when compared with street drugs

Legal, doctor-prescribed and FDA approved

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:o Relief of paino Aid with sleepo Experimentationo Helps with concentrationo To increase alertness

Significance:

According to the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, millions of teens report abusing a variety of prescription and over the counter medications, such as painkillers, stimulants and cough suppressants

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

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.

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

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

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

Professions concerned about this issue..

People involved:• Parents• Teachers• School Administrators• 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)

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

• 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

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.

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 abusehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUxbNDkFesY

Challenges

• Families and Communities taking the Lead• Physicians getting the training• Monitoring every prescription drug abuser.

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?

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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.

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