Older adults, women, individuals in poor health and those who drink alcohol
daily are most likely to develop a prescription drug habit, according to
Linda Simoni-Wastila, Ph.D., of the University of Maryland, Baltimore,
and colleagues. Their findings appear in the American Journal of
Public Health.
The researchers did not find a link between prescription drug abuse and
use of illegal drugs like marijuana or cocaine.
“Although other studies have linked nonmedical drug use to illicit
drug use, our findings suggest that problem use of narcotics, sedative
hypnotics and tranquilizers occurs in the absence of illicit drug taking,” Simoni-Wastila
and colleagues say.
Simoni-Wastila and colleagues calculated the number of prescription drug
abusers using data from the 1991-1993 National Household Surveys on Drug
Abuse. The surveys indicate that more than 8.2 million people, or 4 percent
of the U.S. population, have used prescription drugs for nonmedical purposes
in the past year.
People who used prescription drugs for nonmedical purposes were considered
problem users if they had at least two symptoms of abuse, including the
inability to cut down on drug use or needing larger amounts of the drug,
withdrawal symptoms, or use of the prescription drug in the past month
and being depressed, upset or unable to think clearly.
Women, unmarried adults and those age 35 and older were more likely than
others to be problem users of narcotic painkillers like codeine and morphine,
the researchers found.
Women and white individuals, along with daily drinkers and those in poor
or fair health were more likely to abuse tranquilizers like Xanax or valium.
People in poor health were more likely to use barbiturates like Seconal
and Quaaludes, while people making less than $40,000 a year were less likely
to abuse barbiturates.
