Adolescent Prescription Drug Abuse

The Prevention Researcher, Volume 19, Number 1, 2012, Item# 191

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“In 2010, 22% of high school seniors reported nonmedical prescription drug use at any point in their lifetime and 15% reported NMPDU in the past year,” write our lead authors, Jason Ford and William Watkins. Given these statistics, it is not surprising that the abuse of prescription drugs is a growing topic of concern for many professionals who work with youth.

For adolescents, prescription drugs are second only to marijuana as the most popular form of illegal drug use. In this issue of The Prevention Researcher, we address this important topic by discussing the prevalence of prescription drug abuse, providing an understanding of how and why adolescents’ motives matter for prevention and intervention, and exploring preventive approaches and frameworks in the school and community environments.

We start this issue with an introductory article by Jason Ford and William Watkins. This article provides an overview of the research on adolescent nonmedical prescription drug use, including prevalence, demographic characteristics of users, risk factors for use, and other important themes.

Rural communities often have distinct contextual factors that impact residents’ substance abuse. Our next article by April Young and colleauges looks at the differences between rural and urban adolescent prescription drug abuse and highlights implications for prevention and treatment.

Adolescents’ motives for engaging in nonmedical prescription drug use is somewhat different than their reasons for using other drugs, such as marijuana. In an article by Sean Esteban McCabe and Carol Boyd, we learn about adolescents’ motives for engaging in prescription drug abuse and how these motives impact prevention and intervention efforts.

We conclude with two articles about prevention. The first, by Beth Jones and colleagues, provides a framework for a school-based collaborative approach to prevention called a Prevention Awareness Team. This prevention approach involves families, schools, youth, and members of the community.

Then Rebecca Wade-Mdivanian and colleagues showcase the Generation Rx program, which includes a “toolkit” designed to be used with youth. Two community-based programs are highlighted which have implemented components of the toolkit, and preliminary assessments are revealed.

To accompany this issue, we also have a podcast with Gina Hijjawi about the roles and steps parents can take to prevent their teens from abusing prescription drugs.

View the Table of Contents

Articles in this issue:

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Adolescent Nonmedical Prescription Drug Use

By Jason A. Ford, Ph.D., and William C. Watkins, M.A.

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Do Motives Matter? Nonmedical Use of Prescription Medications Among Adolescents

By Sean Esteban McCabe, Ph.D., and Carol J. Boyd, Ph.D.

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Preventing Prescription Drug Abuse in Adolescence: A Collaborative Approach

By Beth A. Jones, Ph.D., Harry Fullwood, Ph.D., and Melissa Hawthorn, M.S.

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Rural Adolescents’ Nonmedical Prescription Drug Use: Implications for Intervention

By April M. Young, MPH, Natalie Glover, MS., and Jennifer R. Havens, Ph.D.

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Utilizing Business, University, and Community Resources to Target Adolescent Prescription Drug Abuse

By R. Wade-Mdivanian, D. Anderson-Butcher, K. Hale, N. Kwiek, J. Smock, D. Radigan, and J. Lineberger

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