2023-04-21 11:00:15
Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) — In the United States, 1 in 4 teens reported misusing prescription stimulants for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the previous year, a new study found.
“This is the first national study to look at non-medical use of stimulants by students in middle and high schools,” said lead author Sean Esteban McCabe, director of the Center for the Study of Drugs, Alcohol, Smoking, and Health at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
He continued, “In some schools, there was a small percentage of people who misused steroids.. However, more than 25% of students used steroids in non-medical ways in other schools.”
“This study is a huge wake-up call,” said McCabe, who is also a professor of nursing at the University of Michigan College of Nursing.
Some students “use a pill someone gave them because they’re feeling stressed, especially when they’re staying up late studying or working on a research paper,” said Deepa Kamenga, associate director of pediatric programs at Yale Addiction Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.
“We know that things like this only happen in colleges,” Kamenga said.
The study was published Tuesday in the journal JAMA Network Open.
Data collected between 2005 and 2020 was analyzed by Monitoring the Future, a federal study that has been measuring drug use and alcohol consumption among high school students, nationwide, annually since 1975.
In the data set used for this study, questionnaires were provided to more than 230,000 adolescents in grades eight, ten, and twelve, in a nationally representative sample of 3,284 secondary schools.
The study found that schools with high rates of teens using prescription medications for ADHD were 36% more likely to have students misuse stimulants over the past year.
McCabe said that this percentage is lower in schools where students do not use this type of treatment.
There are two sources of student access to these medications.
And it is either through the remaining medicines of a family member, or asking colleagues who may attend other schools.
The study found that teens who said they currently or in the past used stimulant medications were 2.5% more likely to misuse stimulants than their peers who had never used them.
Data for the study was collected through 2020.
Since then, the new stats show prescriptions for steroids rose 10% during 2021 across most age groups.
Meanwhile, there was a nationwide shortage of Adderall, one of the most popular medications for ADHD.
Misuse risks
Experts say taking stimulant medications incorrectly can lead to anxiety, depression, psychosis, and seizures.
And if stimulants are overused, or consumed with alcohol or other drugs, there can be surprising health consequences.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said side effects can include a dangerously high body temperature and an irregular heartbeat, especially if the stimulants are taken in large doses or by methods other than swallowing pills.
Experts say abuse of stimulant drugs has grown over the past two decades.
Studies have shown that 1 in 9 high school students take stimulant therapy for ADHD.
For children with ADHD who use their medications correctly, stimulants can be an effective treatment.
“It protects the health of the child,” Kamenga said. “These adolescents who are properly diagnosed and treated do very well.”
What parents and caregivers can do
McCabe stressed that the solution to this problem is not to limit the use of medicines to children who really need them.
He added that parents can talk to their children about how to deal with their peers, who ask to take a pill or two to celebrate or have an all-night study session.
“You’d be surprised how many kids don’t know what to say,” McCabe said.
He added that parents should store controlled medicines in a safe box, and not hesitate to count the pills.
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