AAFP Joins National Campaign to Curb Teen Prescription Drug Abuse

Prescription drug abuse among adolescents ages 12-17 is up dramatically, and a new public awareness and advertising campaign by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, or ONDCP, is asking parents to help bring these troubling statistics down.

The ONDCP initiative, which launched publicly on Feb. 3 with a commercial during the Super Bowl, includes two new "Parents: The Anti-Drug" television ads and a series of open letters running in daily newspapers and other publications. The AAFP has signed onto the letters and is a partner in the White House office's Parents: The Anti-Drug campaign.

The growing problem of teen prescription and over-the-counter, or OTC, drug abuse is highlighted in a new ONDCP report, Prescription for Danger: A Report on the Troubling Trend of Prescription and Over-the-Counter Drug Abuse Among the Nation's Teens. (13-page PDF; About PDFs.) Findings from that report include the following statistics:

"If there is good news with respect to this problem we face, it's that we believe 70 percent of teenagers obtain prescription drugs from the medicine cabinet at home," said Scott Burns, J.D., ONDCP deputy director.

The campaign urges parents to safeguard all drugs in their homes, set clear rules and talk to their teens about appropriate use of medications. Parents are advised to be good role models and also to properly conceal or dispose of old or unused medicines.

"Family physicians play a very important role in all of this," Burns said. "Anything they can do to educate parents and young people will be much appreciated and beneficial."

Burns recommends physicians talk about prescription drug abuse when they write out prescriptions, particularly those for painkillers, depressants and stimulants. Even if patients have no reason to suspect a member of their household would use or take their medications, they should know that guests in their home, including their kids' friends, may be raiding their pill supply.

Norman Wetterau, M.D., a family physician in rural Dansville, N.Y., said he's seeing the longer-term impact of teen prescription drug abuse in his practice. About 80 of his patients are addicted to opioids, and he praised the ONDCP for raising awareness about this troubling problem.

"Large numbers of people on opioids now started them as teenagers and young adults socially," said Wetterau, who serves as the American Society of Addiction Medicine's liaison to the AAFP. "Most opioid addicts are not starting out on the street with heroin."

Many kids are lured into using prescription drugs because they perceive them to be safer than so-called street drugs. The ONDCP report finds about one-third of teens believe there's "nothing wrong" with using other people's prescriptions. One-third also said they think prescription painkillers have fewer side effects than street drugs.

However, unintentional poisoning deaths involving narcotics and hallucinogens grew 55 percent from 1999 to 2004, the report finds. Researchers attribute this increase primarily to prescription painkillers.

"The kids see it as harmless. At the same time, the number of kids and young adults who abuse prescription drugs become more and more dependent on them to regulate their feelings. The number of deaths from overdoses is significant," Wetterau said.