The National Institute of Drug Abuse estimates that teenagers and young adults are the largest groups currently using prescription medication for recreational purposes. In NIDA's most recent survey on teens and drugs, 36 percent of high school seniors admitted to having used drugs at least once in the previous 12 months.

"Many adults.... may not realize that it could be poor judgment to leave those medications accessible around the home. For example, a teen's mother just returned home after having surgery. That teen knows her mother is taking a pain reliever called OxyContin. When no one is looking, the teen gets into the bottle and gets a couple of pills. No one is the wiser."

Pain relievers, stimulants, sedatives and tranquilizers are the most commonly misused and abused prescription drugs. Parents need to keep prescription medications locked up, and should observe their teens for common indicators of a drug or alcohol problem. Source: The Purell Register


Learn everything you want to know (and some things you might not want to know) about prescription drug abuse at http://www.teenoverthecounterdrugabuse.com.

Drug Rehab information

Labels: addictions, medications, prescription_drug_abuse

A young girl recently wrote to a local advice column seeking guidance about her friend. "Emma," as the friend was referred to, is 14 years old and like a little sister to the writer. But Emma had recently begun hanging out with 18- and 19-year-old boys who let her drink and smoke pot. "What should 'big sis' do?" the writer asked.

"Tell Emma's mother now. Because Emma's father is an alcoholic, she already has the predisposition to become one. The longer you procrastinate, the greater her chances of getting into serious trouble - and face it, she's already well on her way."

It's not always easy to do what's best for friends, but making difficult decisions such as this is an important part of friendship. Sometimes teens have to act in a manner that will make a friend mad now, but will benefit her in the long run. Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Labels: addictions, girls, peers

Dr. Nora Volkow of the National Institute on Drug Abuse wants to know how exercise can help prevent drug or alcohol abuse. The possible connection was first brought to her attention through a study that reported that teens and tweens who exercised were half as likely to smoke and 40 percent less likely to try marijuana than were their sedentary peers.

"The best evidence: Brown University took smokers to the gym three times a week and found adding the exercise to a smoking-cessation program doubled women's chances of successfully kicking the habit."

Volkow invited 100 exercise and neurobiology experts to a two-day conference where she announced that a $4 million research grant was being made available for further research. Though it has yet to be proved, initial studies show that the benefits of exercise extend beyond physical health and appearance. Source: Associated Press

Labels: addictions, exercise, prevention

The cover story in the March 3rd edition of Newsweek, titled "The Hunt for an Addiction Vaccine," has lots of people talking. It also marks a shift in the study of addiction recovery.

"The addict's brain is malfunctioning, as surely as the pancreas in someone with diabetes. In both cases, 'lifestyle choices' may be a contributing factor, but no one regards that as a reason to withhold insulin from a diabetic. 'We are making unprecedented advances in understanding the biology of addiction,' says David Rosenblum, a public-health professor and addiction expert at Boston University."

New scientific discoveries are helping the medical community better understand how an addicted brain functions, which means that medications could be developed to block a drug's effect on the brain. Read more at HealthNewsDigest.com.

Labels: addictions, treatment_programs, vaccine

This year's Monitoring the Future survey has found that drug use among adolescents is continuing to decline. Reported use of some drugs declined significantly.

"Annual prevalence for the three grades combined [8th, 10th, and 12th] did fall significantly this year for both Ritalin and methamphetamine. Ritalin is a prescription amphetamine drug used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Its use outside of medical supervision was first measured in the study in 2001; it has been falling since then, with total declines of between 25 percent and 42 percent at each grade level."

Though use of many drugs has decreased, some - unfortunately - have increased. Over-the-counter cold medication and ecstasy both increased, though neither increase was significant. Monitoring the Future is an annual study sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and conducted by the University of Michigan.

Labels: addictions, drug_use, prescription_drug_abuse

A new study suggests that teens can become dependent on cigarettes within just a few days of trying them, and that even infrequent smoking can lead to nicotine addiction. About 40% of those in the study who tried cigarettes and began to smoke them every day developed tobacco dependence.

Researchers studied 1246 sixth graders over a four-year period. The average age of experimenting with cigarettes was 12.8 years, and 217 of the students in the study tried smoking. One of the most surprising results of the study was how quickly some students began to experience cravings for cigarettes – about 10% lost autonomy within two days. This study appears in the July issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Parents can find help and information about teenage drug addiction at DrugRehabTreatment.com.

Labels: addictions, cigarettes, smoking