A new Michigan State University study finds the peak of teen misuse of prescription drugs comes earlier than previously believed.
MSU researchers say teen misuse of prescription drugs peaks at age 16, not the later teens as previously believed. Many children start using pain killers and other prescription drugs to get high in their tweens.
The MSU study shows about 1 in 60 young people between 12 and 21 years old starts abusing prescription pain relievers each year. That ratio rises to roughly 1 in 30 at age 16.
Jim Anthony is a professor of Epidemiology at MSU. He says the study shows it’s important to get the public health message against misusing prescription drugs to children when they are in middle school.
“We don’t want to delay public health programs…until the high school years or college years," says Anthony, "We want to begin to think about them as early as 12 and 13.”
Anthony says it may also be a good idea for doctors to write some pain killer prescriptions for just a few day supply instead of the more common one or two week supply. He says that might reduce the number of prescription drugs that sit unused in the family medicine cabinet.
Anthony says parents need to pay close attention to their teenager and their medicine cabinet and properly dispose of unneeded painkillers and other prescription drugs.
The MSU study appears in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
