Survey: With Few Exceptions, Teen Drug and Alcohol Use Continue Overall Declines

Continuing a trend that started in the 1990s, the percentage of adolescents who report using illicit drugs or drinking alcohol dropped overall in the past year, according to the 32nd annual Monitoring the Future survey, which involved 50,000 eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders in more than 400 U.S. schools. However, the survey also revealed some troubling statistics that may offer clues on what clinicians should look for when seeing their teenage patients.

Among key findings of the study, which was sponsored by NIH's National Institute on Drug Abuse and conducted by the University of Michigan, are the following:

Fewer eighth- and 10th-graders responded affirmatively when asked whether they'd used steroids in the past month, past year or in their lifetime, compared with those groups' responses in 2001. Lifetime steroid use also has declined among 12th-graders in that same five-year period.

On the downside: Although overall drug use has declined, Vicodin^® (hydrocodone) abuse was deemed to be "at unacceptably high levels" across all three grades, with nearly one in 10 high-school seniors admitting to having used the pain killer recreationally in the past year. Another analgesic, OxyContin^® (oxycodone) remained popular among much of the high-school set; despite a drop in past-year abuse of this drug among 12th-graders, there were no such decreases among eighth- and 10th-grade students.

Finally, in the first national survey to ask about nonmedicinal use of cold and cough medications, 4.2 percent of eighth-graders, 5.3 percent of 10th-graders and 6.9 percent of 12th-graders reported taking dextromethorphan, or DXM, to "get high." DXM is a cough suppressant commonly included as an ingredient in over-the-counter cough and cold remedies.

"The survey results indicate that the messages we are sending to students about addiction and drug abuse are having an overall positive effect," said NIH director Elias Zerhouni, M.D., in an NIH news release. "But the rise in prescription drug abuse among the younger grades and the intentional abuse of over-the counter medications are very disturbing. These findings point to the continuing need to educate our young people about the potential for harm when drugs are taken without a physician's supervision."