A recent report that accompanied the June 4th issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly, Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance – United States, 2009, found that 1 in 5 teens has taken a prescription medication without a doctor’s order.
Abuse of a prescription drug was most common among white students (23 percent), followed by Hispanics (17.2 percent) and blacks (11.8 percent), according to Danice Eaton of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health in Atlanta, Ga., and colleagues. Improper use increased steadily from ninth grade (15.1 percent) to 12th grade (25.8 percent). Girls and boys were equally likely to abuse a prescription medication.
“We are very concerned that 20 percent of high school students are reporting this behavior,” said survey author Danice K. Eaton, a research scientist at the CDC. “It can be dangerous to take a prescription drug that hasn’t been prescribed to you.” Studies have shown that taking non-prescribed prescription drugs can lead to overdose, addiction and death, Eaton explained. “Taking a prescription drug that hasn’t been prescribed to you is a health risk behavior,” she said.
In the survey, 16,460 high school students were asked if they had ever taken prescription drugs such as OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin, Adderall, Ritalin or Xanax, without a doctor’s prescription. This was the first year that questions about drug use were asked.
The full report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can be found here: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/ss/ss5905.pdf.
