Statistics on teenagers abusing stimulant drugs are common today but a recent study shoes that another predicament among teenagers is the abuse of sleep and anti-anxiety drugs.
The study was published in the journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. It suggests that teens prescribed with sleep and anti-anxiety drugs is about 12 times more likely to abuse these drugs compared to teenagers who never had these prescriptions.
For the past ten years, the number of these drugs being prescribed to teens has risen as the research show. In a survey done in 2011 by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, they found out that 3 % of teenagers in the United States abuse these types of drugs.
The said medications can impair driving and also, can be fatal especially when mixed with other substances like alcohol. Lead researcher, Carol J. Boyd, professor at the University of Michigan School of Nursing, said, "When taken as prescribed, these drugs are effective and not dangerous. The problem is when adolescents use too many of them or mixes them with other substances, especially alcohol."
Anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping pills can increase the risk for overdose, substance abuse and even juvenile criminal activities.
In the study, the authors conducted a survey on 2,700 middle and high school students online from Detroit. They did it twice annually from 2009 to 2012. The study revealed that 9% of them had been prescribed with anti-anxiety drugs such as Valium, Klonopon and Xanax, or sleeping pills like Ambien, Restoril and Lunesta. The teenagers who stopped using the medications were 12 times more prone to use another person's anti-anxiety drugs illegally. Sometimes, these adolescents will get their drugs from family member or even friends. They are more likely to abuse these drugs.
"The public often thinks that nonmedical use of these prescription drugs is driven by doctor shopping and drug dealers, but it isn't. It is driven by people with prescriptions who divert their pills to other people, who are usually friends or family members." Boyd reiterated.
