BETHESDA, MD. – Teens and young adults who are prescribed opioids for a specific event, but who take them at other times for pain relief, are at lower risk for substance abuse than those who use the drugs to get high, Carol J. Boyd, Ph.D., said at a meeting of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
In addition, teens who obtain drugs from family members for pain relief are at less risk than those who seek drugs from other sources such as friends or dealers. The data, based on the Student Life Survey (SLS)–an online survey of drug and alcohol use among students (average age 20 years) at the University of Michigan–show that women who have never used a prescription opioid drug and those who have only used these drugs when given to them by a family member are less likely to abuse other substances.
“However, as soon as they start getting it from a peer or another source–like a drug dealer–or an unspecified source … that's when we start seeing increased rates of substance abuse,” said Dr. Boyd, director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The same pattern is seen in men, though they typically abuse substances at higher rates than women.
Half of young women got prescription drugs from their peers, while the rate is slightly higher for young men (58%), based on 1,387 responses in 2003. Women were more likely to get prescription drugs from family members than were men–23% versus 11%.
In 2005, of 2,305 women who responded, 26% had a prescription for an analgesic opioid and had used it in the last year, compared with 20% of 2,275 men surveyed. About 10% of men and 8% of women reported nonmedical use of prescription drugs in the last year, that is, use of drugs for which they had not obtained a prescription from a physician for a specific indication. Of these nonmedical users, 50% reported using hydrocodone; 38%, codeine; 14%, oxycodone; and 10%, propoxyphene.
Of 641 students surveyed, most men (60%) and women (66%) responded that they misused prescription opioids to relieve pain. Men were more likely to report experimentation and getting high as reasons.
The researchers included 10 questions, taken from the Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST), which provide insight into potential drug abuse. A score of at least 2 indicates a person may have substance abuse problems. “If individuals endorsed only nonmedical use to relieve pain, they look no different than the group of students who never had used an opioid analgesic nonmedically,” Dr. Boyd said. “But as soon as they start endorsing a motivation other than pain relief, their DAST scores increase.”
Similar results were seen among younger students. The Web-based Secondary Student Life Survey involves participants in grades 7–12 in an ethnically diverse (47% African American) school system in Southern Michigan. Students are asked the same questions as college students taking the SLS.
In 2005, 1,086 students completed the survey. The lifetime prevalence of nonmedical use was greatest for pain medications (18%), followed by sleep drugs, anxiolytics, and stimulants. Girls were significantly more likely to report nonmedical use of pain medications, but there were no gender differences for the nonmedical use of any other prescription drugs. In terms of race, there were no differences in the nonmedical use of analgesic opioids.
Most students (80%) reported pain relief as their motivation for nonmedical use of prescription opioids. In addition, 16% reported sleep as their motivation, 20% reported getting high, and 3% said prescription drugs are safer than street drugs.