Article

Prevalence and Patterns of Prescription Drug Misuse among Young Ketamine Injectors.

Assistant professor at the University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine, Departments of Pediatrics and Preventative Medicine.
Journal of drug issues (impact factor: 0.38). 02/2007; 37(3):717-736. pp.717-736
Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT In recent years, epidemiological monitoring data has indicated sharp increases in prescription drug misuse. Despite these increases, little is known about the context or patterns associated with prescription drug misuse, particularly among youth or young injection drug users (IDUs). A three-city study of 213 young IDUs found prescription drug misuse to be pervasive, specifically the use of opioids and benzodiazepines. Particular practices not commonly associated with prescription drugs were reported, such as sniffing, smoking, and injection. Associated health risks included initiation into injection drug use, polydrug use, drug overdose, and drug dependency. A greater awareness of the potential health risks associated with prescription drug misuse should be incorporated into services that target IDUs, including street outreach, syringe exchanges, and drug treatment.

0 0
 · 
0 Bookmarks
 · 
32 Views
  • Source
    Article: Can abuse deterrent formulations make a difference? Expectation and speculation.
    Simon H Budman, Jill M Grimes Serrano, Stephen F Butler
    [show abstract] [hide abstract]
    ABSTRACT: It is critical that issues surrounding the abuse and misuse of prescription opioids be balanced with the need for these medications for the treatment of pain. One way to decrease the abuse of prescription opioid medications is to develop abuse deterrent formulations (or ADFs) that in some way prevent drug abusers from extracting out the active ingredient in order to employ alternate routes of administration, such as injection, snorting, and smoking. Several factors including the pharmacokinetic profile of the drug, the features of the drug formulation that make it attractive or unattractive for abuse, the type of drug abuser, the progression of one's addiction pathway, and one's social environment may all play a role in the abuse of prescription opioids and what methods are used to abuse these drugs. This paper will examine these factors in order to understand how they affect the abuse of prescription opioids and routes of administration, and how the development of ADFs may alter these patterns.
    Harm Reduction Journal 02/2009; 6:8. · 1.26 Impact Factor
  • Source
    Article: Benzodiazepine use and misuse among patients in a methadone program.
    Kevin W Chen, Christine C Berger, Darlene P Forde, Christopher D'Adamo, Eric Weintraub, Devang Gandhi
    [show abstract] [hide abstract]
    ABSTRACT: Benzodiazepines (BZD) misuse is a serious public health problem, especially among opiate-dependent patients with anxiety enrolled in methadone program because it puts patients at higher risk of life-threatening multiple drug overdoses. Both elevated anxiety and BZD misuse increase the risk for ex-addicts to relapse. However, there is no recent study to assess how serious the problem is and what factors are associated with BZD misuse. This study estimates the prevalence of BZD misuse in a methadone program, and provides information on the characteristics of BZD users compared to non-users. An anonymous survey was carried out at a methadone program in Baltimore, MD, and all patients were invited to participate through group meetings and fliers around the clinic on a voluntary basis. Of the 205 returned questionnaires, 194 were complete and entered into final data analysis. Those who completed the questionnaire were offered a $5 gift card as an appreciation. 47% of the respondents had a history of BZD use, and 39.8% used BZD without a prescription. Half of the BZD users (54%) started using BZD after entering the methadone program, and 61% of previous BZD users reported increased or resumed use after entering methadone program. Compared to the non-users, BZD users were more likely to be White, have prescribed medication for mental problems, have preexistent anxiety problems before opiate use, and had anxiety problems before entering methadone program. They reported more mental health problems in the past month, and had higher scores in anxiety state, depression and perceived stress (p < .05). Important information on epidemiology of BZD misuse among methadone-maintenance patients suggests that most methadone programs do not address co-occurring anxiety problems, and methadone treatment may trigger onset or worsening of BZD misuse. Further study is needed to explore how to curb misuse and abuse of BZD in the addiction population, and provide effective treatments targeting simultaneously addiction symptoms, anxiety disorders and BZD misuse.
    BMC Psychiatry 01/2011; 11:90. · 2.55 Impact Factor
Data provided are for informational purposes only. Although carefully collected, accuracy cannot be guaranteed. The impact factor represents a rough estimation of the journal's impact factor and does not reflect the actual current impact factor. Publisher conditions are provided by RoMEO. Differing provisions from the publisher's actual policy or licence agreement may be applicable.

Keywords

213 young IDUs
 
Associated health risks
 
drug dependency
 
drug overdose
 
drug treatment
 
epidemiological monitoring data
 
greater awareness
 
injection drug use
 
Particular practices
 
polydrug use
 
potential health risks
 
prescription drug misuse
 
prescription drugs
 
recent years
 
services
 
sharp increases
 
street outreach
 
target IDUs
 
three-city study
 
young injection drug users
 

Stephen E Lankenau