Misuse of the drug is defined as taking a prescription in larger quantities than prescribed, more frequently than prescribed, longer than prescribed or in any way not specified by their healthcare provider. Someone who uses a drug that is not prescribed to them is also considered abusive.
The abuse of psychoactive drugs can lead to overdoses, chemical dependence and, in severe cases, death, said lead author Israel Agaku, a lecturer in the Department of Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine.
Interrogators collected data from surveys of U.S. adolescents and young adults taken between 2015 and 2018.
It has also been found that more than 20% of adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 who use psycho-medication abuse these drugs. The greater number of young adults abusing drugs compared to young people can be attributed to a lack of parental supervision, Agaku said.
Adults can get this prescription medicine from their peers, “it can be facilitated in social circles where there is a degree of social acceptability.” This could include performance-enhancing stimulants called ‘study medicine’, Agaku said.
Various prescriptions increase the chance of abuse
Taking multiple psycho-medications significantly increased the likelihood of abuse, researchers also found.
More than 60% of adults who have used multiple psychotropic drugs have abused at least one of their prescriptions. For youths from 12 to 17, the number was more than 46%.
People may become addicted to drugs and need more to feel ‘high’, Agaku said. He also believes that there may be a social component in which people who use these drugs “get more social and environmental directions to abandon them to such behavior.”
Opioid use was highest for young adults and adolescents, with 30% of adults using psychotropic drugs and 19% for adolescents.
However, stimulants and sedatives were by far the most abused drug. More than 40% of teens who used sedatives reported their abuse, and more than 51% of adults who used stimulants said they abused it.
Stimulant abuse may have been high among young adults because they “may get it from their health care providers on purpose for non-medical purposes,” Agaku said in an email. Stimulants also have less stigma among young adults in environments such as university campuses, he said.
Steps forward
Andrew Psychon, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle who was not involved in the study, has a lower supply of it for psychoactive drugs such as opioids.
Beginning in the 1990s, ‘the message doctors get was if you’re a compassionate, caring doctor and your patient is in pain, you’ll prescribe opioids because it’s not dangerous to do so,’ Saxon said.
This was true for some patients, he said, but the opioids did more harm than good to others. Saxon doctors recommend that other forms of treatment be investigated for their patients, such as cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT.
To reduce the abuse of psychoactive drugs, Agaku recommended behavioral counseling as an alternative before prescribing medication. For youths in particular, he called for parents to take responsibility for their own medicine to keep it out of the hands of their children.