Teen Drug Abuse
Medical Author: Roxanne Dryden-Edwards, MD
Medical Editor: William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR
Prescription Drug Abuse, an Alarming Trend
Medical Author: Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD
Medical Editor:
Barbara
K. Hecht, PhD
 According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in 2006, 16.2 million Americans aged 12 and older had taken a prescription pain reliever, tranquilizer, stimulant, or sedative for nonmedical purposes at least once in the year prior to being surveyed. Up to 7 million people, or 2.8% of the U.S. population age 12 or older, had used prescription medications for nonmedical purposes in the month prior to the survey.
Although any type of medication has the potential to be abused, certain
groups of prescription drugs are most commonly abused.
Painkillers: Opioids such as codeine and
morphine are narcotics prescribed to treat pain. Other drugs in this class
include oxycodone (OxyContin), hydrocodone (Vicodin), meperidine (Demerol),
hydromorphone (Dilaudid), and propoxyphene (Darvon).
CNS depressants: Drugs in the
benzodiazepine class are central nervous system (CNS) depressants used to treat
anxiety disorders and sometimes for the short-term treatment of insomnia.
Examples include alprazolam (Xanax), diazepam (Valium), and triazolam (Halcion).
Top Searched Teen Drug Abuse Terms
marijuana, teen drug addiction, cocaine, symptoms, crack, causes, treatment, risk factors, signs, alcohol, Sudafed, Benadryl, Oxycontin, Vicodin, anabolic steroids
What drugs are abused by teenagers?
Virtually every drug that is abused by adults is also abused by adolescents.
In addition to alcohol, common categories of drugs of abuse include:
- Tobacco products (for example, cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco)
- Cannabinoids (for example, marijuana, hashish), sometimes called "pot, weed,
Mary Jane, or herb" and is smoked in a "joint," "blunt," "bong," or pipe
- Cold medications (for example,
Sudafed, Benadryl)
- Inhalants (for example, gasoline, ammonia), the use of which is
often referred to as "huffing"
- Depressants (for example, barbiturates,
benzodiazepines), sometimes called "reds, yellows, yellow jackets, downers or roofies"
- Stimulants (for example, amphetamines, cocaine, methamphetamine), sometimes
called "bennies, black beauties, speed, uppers, blow, crack, rock, toot, crank,
crystal, or skippy"
- Narcotics (for example, morphine, heroin, codeine, Oxycontin,
Vicodin), sometimes called cody, schoolboy, Tango and Cash, or monkey"
- Hallucinogens (for example LSD, "mushrooms"), sometimes called "acid, yellow sunshines,
buttons, or shrooms"
- Dissociative anesthetics (for example, phencyclidine/PCP,
ketamine), sometimes called "lovely, boat, Love Boat, angel dust, K, vitamin K, or cat" and
whose use is often referred to as "getting wet"
- Club drugs (for example, Ecstasy),
sometimes called "X"
- Others (for example, anabolic steroids), sometimes called
"juice or roids"
Next: What are some statistics on teenage drug use? »
- Human Immunodeficiency Virus - Read about HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) causes, symptoms, signs, treatment, prevention, transmission, facts, testing, research (vaccine), statistics and AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome).
- Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism - Learn alcohol abuse and alcoholism causes, symptoms, treatment and medication facts. What are warning signs of a drinking problem? Is this a hereditary disease?
- Drug-Induced Liver Disease - Prescription medications and drugs, over-the-counter medications, vitamins, hormones, herbs, recreational drugs, and environmental toxins can cause drug-induced liver disease.
Latest Medical News
|
|
 |
From WebMD
Substance Abuse & Recovery Resources
Featured Centers
Teen Drug Abuse
Children's Health »
Introduction
Children's health, or pediatrics,
focuses on the well-being of children from conception through adolescence. It is
vitally concerned with all aspects of children's growth and development and with
the unique opportunity that each child has to achieve their full potential as a
healthy adult.
Children's health was once a part of adult medicine. It
emerged in the 19th and early 20th century as a medical specialty because of the
gradual awareness that the health problems of children are different from those
of grown-ups. It was also recognized that a child's response to illness,
medications, and the environment depends upon the age of the child.
There are many aspects to children's health. Any organization of these aspects of
child health is necessarily arbitrary. For example, the topics could be
presented in alphabetical order. However, it seems most logical to start at the
beginning -- with the factors that d...
Read the Children's Health article »
|
Kids Health RSS