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New research from the United Kingdom suggests that personality-based interventions -- delivered by mental-health specialists or teachers given brief training -- can substantially reduce drug and alcohol use in teens, the BBC reported Aug. 25. In the first study involving more than 700 London secondary-school students aged 13 to 16, researchers assessed participants' personality strengths and weaknesses, then randomly assigned half the group to a two-session intervention with mental-health specialists and the other half to no intervention. The teens who received the intervention were 40% less likely to binge drink and 80% less likely to take cocaine than those receiving no intervention.
California passed new legislation that holds adults legally accountable if they permit minors to drink in their homes, the Associated Press reported Aug. 19. Under the new law, adults will be subject to civil lawsuits in the event of an injury or death resulting from underage drinking if they allowed the drinking to occur. Providing alcohol to minors was already illegal in California, but civil action was prohibited.
Group addiction treatment can actually lead to more drug use by teens if they are casual users placed in sessions with more experienced addicts, Time magazine reported July 16. "Just putting kids in group therapy actually promotes greater drug use," said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
About one in 10 people admitted to addiction treatment programs in 2008 misused prescription drugs, quadruple the rate reported in 1998, ABC News reported July 16. "People are getting treatment, which is good news. But the bad news is the problem just keeps growing," said Peter Delaney, director of the Office of Applied Studies at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Parents who insist on accountability from their kids but lack warmth in their relationships may be setting themselves up for alcohol-related heartache as they raise their children, the Los Angeles Times reported June 24. Not surprisingly, kids who viewed their parents as indulgent were the most likely to drink heavily, according to researchers at Brigham Young University. However, researchers who compared parenting styles to alcohol consumption among 5,000 adolescents also found that kids whose parents were strict but unsupportive were also big drinkers.
Researchers who studied teenagers' social networks concluded that those who were sleep-deprived were more likely to use marijuana, and that the pattern tended to be repeated among clusters of their friends, the CanWest News Service reported March 19. The University of California at San Diego study of 8,249 teens found that "all of our behaviors lead to other behaviors and when we think about treating one issue in isolation, we're missing the point that treating an entire milieu is probably more effective," said study author Sara Mednick..
A new report finds that more kids say they are using alcohol and other drugs, but many parents are unable or unwilling to deal with the issue -- a bad combination when declining support for prevention and cultural apathy about the issue leave parents as the last and sometimes only line of defense against adolescent drug use. The 2009 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS), released March 2 by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America (PDFA) and MetLife Foundation, reported rather dramatic year-over-year spikes in past-month alcohol use (up 11 percent) and past-year use of marijuana (up 19 percent) and ecstasy (up 67 percent) among U.S. students in grades 9-12.
The rate of alcohol-related fatal car crashes has risen among some populations of female drivers, a worrying trend that runs counter to the decline in such crashes among young men. ScienceDaily reported Feb. 18 that an analysis of U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data found that the rate of fatal car crashes where drivers had alcohol in their system fell among all age groups of men studied up to age 20 (16 to 20) and remained the same among 21- to 24-year-olds.
California researchers who compared the brains of teen drinkers to non-drinkers found that young alcohol users suffered damage to nerve tissues that could cause attention deficits among boys and faulty visual information processing among girls. NPR reported Jan. 25 that researcher Susan Tapert of the University of California at San Diego and colleagues studied the brains of 12- to 14-year-olds, starting before they began drinking and following them as some began using alcohol. Researchers found that those who binged on alcohol did worse on thinking and memory tests, but that the impairment differed by gender..
More than one in four girls ages 12-17 was involved in fighting within the past year, according to new survey data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). HealthDay News reported Jan. 15 that a SAMHSA survey of more than 33,000 adolescents found that 19 percent of the girls surveyed reported involvement in a serious fight at school or work, 14 percent took part in group fights, and about 6 percent said they attacked someone else intending to cause serious injury. 
Study Explores Opioid Overdoses Among Pain Patients A study of about 10,000 pain patients receiving opioid drugs found that 51 seriously overdosed during a 45-month period, and six died, WebMD reported Jan. 19. Most patients who overdosed were receiving less than 100 mg of opioids daily, but the odds of overdosing were greater among those receiving higher daily doses. Researchers noted that nonfatal overdoses were seven times more common than fatal overdoses. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that opiate-related deaths tripled between 1999 and 2006.
A new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) finds that 4.7 percent of Americans age 50 and older used illicit drugs during the past year, a figure that's on the rise and reflective of lifelong drug use by aging Baby Boomers, experts said. SAMHSA said the report, Illicit Drug Use Among Older Adults, presages a possible doubling in need for treatment services among older Americans in the next decade. "This new data has profound implications for the health and well-being of older adults who continue to abuse substances," said SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde. "These findings highlight the need for prevention programs for all ages as well as to establish improved screening and appropriate referral to treatment as part of routine health care services."
From the founding of National Families in Action during the height of the War on Drugs to Joseph A. Califano's book, How to Raise a Drug-Free Kid, parents and communities have been touted as the keys to preventing alcohol and other drug problems among youth, and research now shows that environmental and genetic risk factors can be trumped by parental engagement during the critical adolescent years, according to Nora D. Volkow, M.D., director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). "Parents are incredibly important in raising drug-free kids, but in many instances they are not there or are not involved" -- absences that can have measurable effects on brain development as well as other aspects of growing up -- said Volkow. For example, studies of orphans have demonstrated that the brains of children who lack connections to parents actually mature more slowly, raising the risk of drug use and other impulsive behaviors.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and Nationwide Insurance have launched "The Power of Parents, It's Your Influence by MADD(™)" to give parents of high school students the communication tools they need to stop teen alcohol use. The program features resources at www.thepowerofparents.org. A GfK Roper Youth Report showed 74% of kids (age 8-17) said their parents are the leading influence on their decisions about drinking. Data also shows that a zero tolerance message from parents to teens is the most effective in deterring underage drinking and it also supports the lifesaving 21 drinking age law, which is in all 50 states. (View the multimedia news release)
The more parents expect their teens to engage in risky behaviors such as drinking and using drugs, the more likely their teens are to follow through with those behaviors, Reuters reported Oct. 16. Researchers found that adolescents with mothers who expected them to be more rebellious and take greater risks reported higher levels of risky behavior than other adolescents during follow-up surveys. On the other hand, parents may lower the rate of risky behavior among their adolescent children by expecting that they can resist negative peer pressure and instead engage in positive behavior, according to the study.
A majority of older drivers are not aware of the potential risk of driving while under the influence of medications such as ACE inhibitors, sedatives or beta-blockers, according to a new study (PDF) from the University of Alabama at Birmingham's (UAB) Center for Injury Sciences. ScienceDaily reported Aug. 13 that the study found that while 95 percent of drivers age 55 and older have one or more illnesses, and 78 percent are on one or multiple medications, only 28 percent knew the impact these medicines could have on their ability to drive.
Self-reported binge drinkers performed worse on cognitive tests compared to non-bingers, even when they were sober, the Los Angeles Times reported Aug. 11. Researchers at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain said the findings hinted that binge drinking could affect the brain in ways similar to that observed among alcoholics.
A survey of more than 12,000 U.S. high-school seniors found that 12.3 percent said they had used opioid-based prescription drugs for non-medical purposes, with 8 percent saying they had done so within the past year, HealthDay News reported Aug. 3. Students said they used drugs like hydrocodone, oxycodone, hydromorphone, meperidine, morphine and codeine to relax, relieve tension, get high, experiment, relieve pain, or have a good time with their friends.
Internet and face-to-face individuals counseling were most effective in curbing college drinking, whereas mail and group feedback did little to change drinking habits, according to a systematic review of previously published research on college alcohol use. HealthDay News reported July 20 that researchers from Oxford Brookes University in England reviewed 22 past studies and found that 62 percent of students receiving Internet-based interventions reported reductions in their drinking, as did 65 percent of students who received in-person, one-on-one counseling.
A Penn State researcher says that parents who let teens drink alcohol may be setting their kids up for binge drinking in college, but the study by Caitlin Abar of the school's Prevention Research and Methodology Center makes no distinction between parents who simply let kids drink some wine during meals and those whose permissiveness extends to drinking outside the home. Science Daily reported June 11 that Abar surveyed 300 college freshmen and correlated their alcohol use to the drinking rules set down by their parents. Abar found that students whose parents never allowed them to drink were less likely to report heavy drinking in college.
Living with an alcoholic father dramatically increases the risk of binge drinking among teenagers, according to new research from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Researchers said that more than 10 percent of 12- to 17-year-old children of alcoholics engaged in binge drinking or other abusive alcohol use within the past year, compared to 4.7 percent of children with fathers who drank moderately and 3 percent among teens whose dads didn't drink at all.
Alcohol-related deaths, heavy drinking and drunk driving are all increasing among U.S. college students, according to a report from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Alcohol-related deaths among college students ages 18-24 rose from 1,440 in 1998 to 1,825 in 2005, according to the study by researcher Ralph Hingson, director of NIAAA's Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research, and colleagues. Most of the deaths were due to traffic-related incidents.
A new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that binge drinking is most common among whites, men, individuals aged 18-24, and those with an annual income of more than $50,000 annually, HealthDay News reported April 2. CDC researchers studied data on about 63,000 Americans and found that 17.5 percent of whites and 24.3 percent of males were binge drinkers. Of young people between the ages of 18 and 24, 27.4 percent were binge drinkers, and of people between the ages of 24-34, 24.4 percent were binge drinkers. Binge drinking was most common among those with an income of $50,000 or more, but individuals with incomes under $25,000 annually had the highest number of binge-drinking episodes within the past 30 days. Binge drinkers reported an average of four binge episodes a month, the CDC said, consuming an average of 8 drinks per episode. Binge drinkers who were black or American Indian/Alaskan Native averaged the highest number of binge episodes per month. The study was published in the April 3, 2009 issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Investing in addiction prevention programs yields a 10-1 return for society, according to researchers from Iowa State University (ISU) who studied the Iowa Strengthening Families Program and the Life Skills Training Program. Researchers Richard Spoth, Ph.D., and Max Guyll, Ph.D. detailed findings from the "Prevention's Cost Effectiveness: Illustrative Economic Benefits of General Population Interventions" and "Prevention of Substance-related Problems: Effectiveness of Family-focused Prevention" studies for a conference sponsored by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the World Health Organization. "Effective and efficient prevention promises to save possibly billions of dollars per year, provided we can learn how to effectively implement it on a larger scale," said Spoth, director of ISU's Partnerships in Prevention Science Institute (PPSI).
NIDA's 2008 Monitoring the Future Survey Shows Mixed Results WASHINGTON -- There are signs that the ongoing decline in teen marijuana use in recent years has stalled; however the downward trend in cigarette and alcohol use continues, according to the 2008 Monitoring the Future (MTF) Survey. Results were announced today at a news conference. The MTF survey indicates that marijuana use among eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders, which has shown a consistent decline since the mid-1990s, appears to have leveled off with 10.9 percent of eighth graders, 23.9 percent of tenth graders, and 32.4 percent of twelfth graders reporting past year use. Heightening the concern over this stabilization in use is the finding that, compared to last year, the proportion of eighth graders who perceived smoking marijuana as harmful and the proportion disapproving of its use have decreased. |
Downward Trend in Teen Marijuana Use Slows; Prescription Drug Abuse Remains High
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