Those prescribed anxiety or sleep medications during the study period were 10 times more likely to abuse them within two years, to get high or to experiment, than teens without prescriptions.Adolescents prescribed anxiety medications during their lifetime, but not during the study, were 12 times more likely to use someone else’s anxiety medication than participants who had never been prescribed such drugs.The U-M study included students from five Detroit-area schools grouped into three categories: those never prescribed anxiety or sleep medications those prescribed those medications within the three-year study period and those previously prescribed those medications but not during the study period. These are controlled substances partly because of the potential for abuse, and it’s a felony to share them, Boyd said. “What happened to Heath Ledger could happen to any teen who is misusing these medications, particularly if the teen uses alcohol in combination with these drugs,” Boyd said.Įxamples of anti-anxiety medications include Klonopin, Xanax and Ativan sleep medications include Ambien, Restoril and Lunesta. “However, the number of adolescents prescribed these medications and the number misusing them is disturbing for several reasons.”Īnxiety and sleep medications can be addictive or even fatal when mixed with narcotics or alcohol, said Boyd, who is also a professor of women’s studies and research professor at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender and at the U-M Addiction Research Center in the Department of Psychiatry. “I recognize the importance of these medications in treating anxiety and sleep problems,” said the study’s first author Carol Boyd, the Deborah J.
Nearly 9 percent of the 2,745 adolescent study participants had received a prescription for anxiety or sleep medications during their lifetime, and more than 3 percent received at least one prescription during the three-year study period. Teens prescribed anxiety or sleep medications are up to 12 times more likely to abuse those drugs than those who had never had a prescription, either by using someone else’s prescription pills or to get high or experiment, according to a study from the U-M School of Nursing. ANN ARBOR-The medical community may be inadvertently creating a new generation of illegal, recreational drug users by prescribing anti-anxiety or sleep medications to teenagers, say University of Michigan researchers.
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