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The results, based on recent nationwide surveys of nearly 120,000U.S. adolescents, suggest prevention programs may need to beintroduced earlier, in childhood and early adolescence, said JamesC. Anthony of MSU's Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Recent trends show clinicians and public health professionals areprescribing more pain relievers, and research suggests an increasedmisuse of these drugs and increased rates of overdose deaths, saidAnthony, who supervised the research of postdoctoral fellowElizabeth Meier and graduate student Jonathan Troost. "While much of the previous thinking was that misuse of thesedrugs emerged in the final year of high school and during thecollege-age years, we found that for adolescents the peak risk ofstarting to misuse these painkillers generally occurs earlier, notduring the postsecondary school years," Anthony said. "Wesuspect many physicians, other prescribing clinicians and publichealth professionals, will share our surprise in thisfinding." The study, supported by grants from the National Institute on DrugAbuse and MSU, was published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine , a network publication of the Journal of the American MedicalAssociation. The team of researchers analyzed data from the 2004 through 2008National Surveys on Drug Use and Health to identify when youngpeople are most likely to start using prescription pain relieversto get high or for other unapproved uses. The results show about 1in 60 young people between 12 and 21 years old starts usingprescription pain relievers each year, outside the boundaries ofwhat a prescriber has intended. Peak risk is concentrated at about 16 years, when roughly 1 in 30to 40 youth start to use painkillers to get high, or for otherreasons not intended by the prescriber. "Getting a firm grasp of when the first onset occurs is veryimportant when we try to take public health action to prevent firstoccurrence," Anthony said. "With the peak risk at age 16years and a notable acceleration in risk between ages 13 and 14years, any strict focus on college students or 12th graders mightbe an example of too little too late." The results reveal a need to strengthen prescribing guidelines forclinicians and introduce early school-based prevention programssuch as effective school-based alcohol and tobacco initiatives, hesaid. Other types of prevention programs include peer-resistance programssuch as the popular "Just Say No" campaigns. There alsois an opportunity to work with pharmaceutical specialists whosometimes can reformulate these drugs so their effects are bluntedwhen misused. As for clinicians with a public health perspective, Anthony saidthat non-opioid pain relievers such as ibuprofen can be quiteeffective, and that when opioid pain killers are prescribed foradolescents or in reach of teens, the number of tablets can belimited or kept under lock and key. "Patients in transient pain are often given a larger opioidprescription than is needed. It can end up stacked in the medicinecabinet, available to anyone in or visiting the household," hesaid. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as LED Fog Light Bulbs Manufacturer , China HID Xenon Headlamps for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits T10 LED Light Bulbs.
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