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November 8, 2009
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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

Learn about prescription drug abuse in teens.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).

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? »

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Teen Drug Abuse

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 »









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