Teen Prescription Abuse Prevention Lasts Into Adulthood

Middle-school students from small towns and rural communities who received any of three community-based prevention programs were less likely to abuse prescription medications in late adolescence and young adulthood, according to research funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and published yesterday in the American Journal of Public Health.

The article presents the combined research results of three randomized, controlled trials of preventive interventions – termed “universal” because they target all youth regardless of risk for future substance abuse. All three studies involved rural or small-town students in grades six or seven, who were randomly assigned to a control condition (receiving no prevention intervention) or to a family-focused intervention alone or in combination with a school-based intervention.The researchers said the intervention effects were comparable or even stronger for participants who had started misusing substances prior to the middle-school interventions, suggesting that these programs also can be successful in higher-risk groups.

Read more about the prescription drug abuse epidemic in Psychiatric News here.

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