A Prospective Study of Adolescents' Nonmedical Use of Anxiolytic and Sleep Medication

• Published in: Psychology of addictive behaviors 2015-03, Vol.29 (1), p.184-191
• Main Authors: Boyd, Carol J., Austic, Elizabeth, Epstein-Ngo, Quyen, Veliz, Philip T., McCabe, Sean Esteban
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Affect - drug effects; Anti-Anxiety Agents; Anxiolytic Drugs; Cross-Sectional Studies; Drug Abuse; Drug Usage; Drug Utilization - statistics & numerical data; Drugs; Female; Health Surveys; Human; Humans; Hypnotics and Sedatives; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Motivation; Prescription Drugs; Prospective Studies; Risk Factors; Secondary schools; Self Medication - psychology; Self Medication - statistics & numerical data; Self-medication; Sleep; Sleep medication; Substance abuse; Substance-Related Disorders - epidemiology; Substance-Related Disorders - psychology; Surveys
• ISSN: 0893-164X; 1939-1501
• DOI: 10.1037/adb0000026

The purpose of this longitudinal study (N = 2,745) was to determine whether adolescents' recent medical use of anxiolytic or sleep medication was associated with increased incidence of using someone else's prescription for these classes of medication (nonmedical use). Data were collected from adolescents attending 5 Detroit area secondary schools between December and April in 3 consecutive academic years between 2009 and 2012. Respondents were assigned to the following 3 mutually exclusive groups for the analyses: (1) never prescribed anxiolytic or sleep medication (in their lifetime); (2) prescribed anxiolytic or sleep medication in their lifetime, but not during the study period; or (3) prescribed anxiolytic or sleep medication during the study period. Almost 9% of the sample had received a prescription for anxiolytic or sleep medication during their lifetime, and 3.4% had received at least 1 prescription during the 3-year study period. Compared with adolescents never prescribed anxiolytic or sleep medication, adolescents prescribed these medicines during the study period were 10 times more likely to engage in nonmedical use for reasons such as "to get high" or "to experiment" (adjusted odds ratio [ORadj.] = 10.15; 95% CI [3.97-25.91]), and 3 times more likely to engage in nonmedical use to self-treat anxiety or to sleep (ORadj. = 3.24; 95% CI [1.67-6.29]). Adolescents prescribed anxiolytics during their lifetime but not during the 3-year study were 12 times more likely to use another's anxiolytic medication, compared with adolescents never prescribed anxiolytics (ORadj. = 12.17; 95% CI [3.98-37.18]). These risk factors have significant implications for later substance use problems.