Study Reveals More Teens Prescribed 'Abuseable' Prescriptions

The chance that a teenager or young adult will receive a prescription for a controlled medication such as OxyContin, Vicodin or Ritalin has nearly doubled in the last 15 years, according to a new report published online in the American Academy of Pediatrics journal Pediatrics.

Study author Dr. Robert Fortuna of the University of Rochester in New York and his team reviewed data collected from 4,304 doctors and 3,856 clinics and emergency departments. In 1994, six percent of teens received a prescription for a controlled medication. By 2007, more than 11 percent were getting them — adding up to 2.3 million doctors' visits in which a drug of this category was prescribed.

Fortuna became interested in conducting the study because the nonmedical use of prescription drugs by teens and young adults has surpassed all illicit drugs except marijuana, yet little is known about prescribing patterns. His team examined the prescribing of controlled medications to adolescents aged 15 to 19 and young adults aged 20 to 29.

The team used cross-sectional data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey which includes both clinics and emergency departments, between 2005 and 2007. They also used consecutive data from 1994 to describe trends.

The findings are concerning, the authors note, because teenagers and young adults are more likely than any other group to abuse prescription medicines. Indeed, nearly one in eight teenagers and one in three adults in their 20s say they have used prescription drugs recreationally at some point in their lifetimes. Surveys show that up to 36 percent of college students pass on their controlled medications to others.

The same trend held among young adults, who saw the rate of prescriptions increase from eight to 16 percent of doctors' visits within the same time period. In 2007, a total of 7.8 million visits led to a prescription for a controlled medication for a young adult.

Fortuna cautioned that the study results do not mean that adolescents and young adults will abuse or share prescriptions or those doctors should reduce writing the scripts.

As a prescribing physician himself, he says the national study does “reinforce the importance of communicating the risks and benefits of controlled medications to young people and the importance of monitoring their use.”

Fortuna notes the time constraints most clinicians are under, but that a discussion about the risks and benefits of prescribing potentially dangerous drugs should happen at the doctor’s office. For teens, parents should be in the room, too.

Fortuna and other clinicians who work with coalitions recommend a balanced approach to prescribing and monitoring.

"It is overstating the study to say that increases in prescribing leads to diversion, misuse or abuse,“ Fortuna said. "Patients should also be monitored closely to ensure that their symptoms are adequately being treated and to ensure that prescriptions are being used as prescribed."

The study will appear in print soon, but you can read it online now.

CADCA has recently developed a prescription drug abuse prevention toolkit for coalitions and we plan to share innovative and promising practices from the coalition field that will highlight strategies for reducing the non-medical use and abuse of prescription and over-the-counter drugs at our National Leadership Forum.