RX Abuse Heaviest in Rural Teens

Teens living in rural areas were more likely than their urban peers to abuse prescription drugs, data from a large national survey suggested.

In the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which included nearly 18,000 adolescents, 13.0% of rural teens reported non-medical use of prescription drugs at some point in their lives, compared with 11.5% of respondents living in suburban or small metropolitan-area counties and 10.3% of those in urban areas, according to Jennifer Havens, PhD, MPH, of the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky., and colleagues.

Relative to urban youths, teens from rural areas were especially more likely to report non-medical use of tranquilizers such as diazepam and opioid painkillers, the researchers reported online in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

"While we were able to identify potential targets for intervention such as increased access to health, mental health, and substance abuse treatment, this may be difficult for rural areas where such resources are in short supply or nonexistent," Havens and colleagues observed.

"Research into the causal mechanisms surrounding initiation of non-medical prescription drug use in rural adolescents is necessary to develop tailored interventions for this population," they added.

For more information on this study, please visit www.medpagetoday.com/psychiatry/addictions/23101