More Young Adults Abusing Pain Pills

Although the use of pain medication for non-medical reasons declined among teens, young adults aged 18 to 25 who abused pain relivers increased from 4.1% to 4.6% from 2002 to 2007. Overall, 5.2 million people over the age of 12 used prescription pain relievers for non-medical reasons in the past month.

These figures were gleaned from a new report based on a series of nationwide surveys.

The report, "Trends in Nonmedical Use of Prescription Pain Relievers: 2002-2007," was released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). It is drawn from SAMHSA's 2002 through 2007 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) which collected data from a total sample of approximately 405,000 persons.

Teen Abuse Declines

The report estimates that 1.5 million young adults aged 18 to 25 abused pain pills in the past month. Other findings of the study include:

• Among youths aged 12 to 17, nonmedical use of pain relievers in the past month declined from 3.2 percent in 2002 to 2.7 percent in 2007.

• Use among adults aged 26 or older increased from 1.3 percent to 1.6 percent.

• The rate of use among males aged 12 or older increased from 2.0 percent in 2002 to 2.6 percent in 2007 but did not change significantly for comparably aged females.

The full report is available online.

More About Prescription Drug Abuse:

• Protecting Children from Prescription Drug Abuse
  
• A Prescription for Teen Danger
  
• Addiction to Prescription Drugs Can Sneak Up On You

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