When it comes to teenage drug abuse, marijuana has long been the most common substance of choice. But reports indicate that marijuana's hold on America's youth continues to be threatened by prescription drugs.

According to a special report on the website of Alabama NBC affiliate Local 15, one of the primary attractions for youth who abuse prescription medications is the surprising ease with which the substances can be acquired:

Where are kids getting their hands on these medications? Often it's in their own home. According to licensed counselor Cathy Clifton: "It's easy to get. They can just take them from mom's purse or the medicine cabinet and sometime parents don't even realize they're gone."

Clifton says with more and more adults taking medication for pain, anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders, more abusable drugs are readily available to teens. ...

Clifton has the following advice for parents:

• Keep all prescription medication away from children.
• Closely monitor the number of pills in bottles.
• Throw out any old medication.
• Also closely monitor your children's Internet use.

Labels: prescription drugs

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Middle school students who use alcohol are more likely to attempt suicide than non-drinkers, according to a new study from Georgia State University.

• Researchers looked at the results of a survey of more than 150,000 students in the sixth, eighth, 10th, and 12th grades about their drug and alcohol use.
• About 15 percent said they started drinking before they were 13 years old.
• The group that started drinking before age 13 was at higher risk for suicide.

"The kids who start drinking early probably have problems in other parts of their lives, such as family dysfunction, mental health and anxiety, with family environment being the biggest driver" said Dr. Monica Swahn, associate dean for research in the College of Health and Human Sciences at GSU.

Labels: alcohol, adolescence, preteens, suicide

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Teens who think their parents are watching over their behaviors are less likely to use marijuana, according to new research from the Claremont Graduate University.

Dr. William Crano and his colleagues reviewed 17 previous studies of more than 35,000 people.

"It was clear that kids who thought their parents were monitoring them used much less marijuana than kids who did not.,"Dr. Crano said. "The interesting thing is that this has to do with the kids' perception of parents monitoring and not necessarily what their parents are actually doing."

"If your kids think that you know what they are doing and where they are at, who they are with and what they are doing when they are not within your sight -- that has a big impact on the kind of trouble they are going to get into," Dr. Crano said.

Labels: teen_drug_use, marijuana, parental_involvement

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A study from from Weill Cornell Medical College suggests that friends' and parents' attitudes toward smoking may influence teens' use of alcohol and other drugs. The study also suggests gender differences in teens' substance abuse decisions:

• Professor Jennifer Epstein and her colleagues surveyed 2,406 sixth and seventh graders in New York City for this study.
• Girls were more influenced to use drugs and alcohol if their immediate peer group held benevolent or permissive attitudes toward smoking.
• If a boy thought that boys his age in general were smoking, he was more likely to use tobacco, drugs and alcohol himself.

"If a teenager feels that smoking is socially acceptable and widely practiced, they are much more likely not only to smoke but to also drink and use marijuana," Dr. Epstein said. "A parent's opinion matters. Moms and dads are critical role models and should let their attitudes against drug use be known."

This study appeared in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse.

Labels: smoking, alcohol_abuse, drug use, teens, influences

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Yet another scientific study using MRI technology has linked teenage binge drinking to brain damage.

Professor Susan Tapert of the University of California, San Diego, performed brain scans on 28 people ages 16 to 19 years old. Half of Prof. Taper's subjects were binge drinkers who got drunk often. This group had lower levels of white matter fiber coherence in 18 separate areas of their brains. White matter is critical for the relay of information within the brain.

"Because the brain is still developing during adolescence, there has been concern that it may be more vulnerable to high doses of alcohol," Dr. Tapert said.

Government surveys show that about 55 percent of all high school seniors say they have been drunk once in the past year, and about 25 percent report drinking five drinks in a row during the past two weeks.

This study appeared in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Labels: teenage_drinking, alcohol_abuse, brain_damage, binge drinking

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About 40 percent of teenagers with depression do not initially respond to a drug regimen of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Common drugs in this class of anti-depressants include Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil.

Researchers led by UCLA Professor Joan Asarow studied 334 depressed teenagers who did not improve with SSRI therapy. These teens were divided into four groups

• One group switched to different forms of SSRIs.
• The second group took Venlafaxine, an anti-depressant in a different family of drugs.
• The third group took SSRIs plus cognitive behavior therapy.
• The fourth group took Venlafaxine plus cognitive behavior therapy.

The members of the third and fourth groups showed the most improvement. Many of them had coexisting disorders such as anxiety or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder along with depression. The combination of drugs and therapy did not help many teens with high levels of hopelessness or histories of abuse.

This study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.

Labels: depression, medications, therapy

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A Texas community organization, Texans Standing Tall, has found that girls in grades 7 through 12 have been drinking more than boys do, thanks in large part to alcoholic energy drinks (many of which are no longer available).

"Energy drinks are popular among youth, including those that contain alcohol... The only difference on the can labels is the absence of nutrition facts and the appearance of an alcohol percentage. Alcoholic beverages aren't governed by the FDA..."

Anheuser-Bush has now removed all of its alcoholic energy drinks from circulation, in response to a lawsuit claiming the drinks were marketed toward young people. Source: Lufkin (TX) Daily News

Labels: girls, boys, binge drinking

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Maternal predictions about teen drinking help determine if a teen will abuse alcohol, according to a new study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

If a mother believes that her child is going to drink alcohol in junior high and high school, the child is more likely to do so. The opposite is also true.

"When mothers overestimated their teens' future use of alcohol, the teens developed the self-view that they were likely to drink alcohol in the future, which ultimately led them to drink more," said Stephanie Madson, an associate professor of psychology at Iowa State University.

Dr. Madson and her colleagues studied 800 Iowa mothers and their children over a period of five years. They found evidence that children formed views about alcohol use based upon their mothers' beliefs, especially whether their mothers believed it is acceptable for adolescents to drink alcohol.

"The moral here is to help children develop positive and pro-social self-concepts about themselves, because children are likely to make choices that match how they view themselves," Dr. Madson said. "The more acceptable teens believed adolescent alcohol use was, the more alcohol they tended to drink themselves."

Labels: mothers, influences, predictors

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Pregnant rats that ingest alcohol give birth to offspring that are attracted to that substance, according to a new study from the State University of New York.

Scientists have already shown that for humans, the best predictor of teen and adult alcoholism is having a mother who drank during pregnancy.

The theory of the new study is that mammals can 'learn' that alcohol is something good even in utero, according to Professor Steven Youngentob. He and his colleagues point out that the senses are among the first systems to develop. A fetus may "learn" by smell and sight what to eat and drink according to what its mother ingests.

"All that information gets transmitted to the fetus during gestation or lactation," Dr. Youngentob explained. He believes this adaptation probably works in humans as well as rats.

If a young rat was not exposed to alcohol by adulthood, it lost its attraction. This study appears in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience.

Boarding schools for teens with substance abuse and addiction problems can help by offering a powerful combination of therapy and accredited academics.

Labels: alcohol_abuse, mothers, influences

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 0 Comments

The damage caused by methamphetamine use is no secret. But how it affects on a community is not as well known.

Professors from Arkansas Tech University set conducted research and gathered information to document how methamphetamine touches more than the lives of its users.

"'High degrees of alienation and low efficacy in individuals increases the likelihood of using drugs,' [Sean Huss, Ph.D] said, noting communities with residents who have low social capital and high alienation are more susceptible to additional problems, which in turn leads to lower support for program spending and a weakened community."

In addition, the American public will pay $1.7 million for every adolescent who becomes a drug addict and an average of $277 in state taxes to deal with the burden of substance abuse.

Labels: support, research, communities

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 0 Comments