Spike in ADHD drug abuse reported
CHICAGO - Calls to poison control centers about teens abusing attention-deficit drugs soared 76 percent over eight years, evidence about the dangerous consequences of prescription misuse, a study shows.
The calls were from worried parents, emergency room doctors, and others seeking advice on how to deal with the problem, which can be deadly. Four deaths were evaluated in the study.
Teens taking ADHD drugs to get high or increase alertness may not realize that misuse of the drugs can cause serious, sometimes life-threatening symptoms, including agitation, rapid heartbeat, and extremely high blood pressure.
“They say, ‘It’s FDA approved; how dangerous could it be?’ ’’ said Steve Pasierb, head of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, based in New York.
In the study, researchers from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center evaluated 1998-2005 data from the American Association of Poison Control Centers. During that time, calls related to teen abuse of ADHD drugs, specifically stimulants, increased from 330 to 581 yearly, and there were four deaths. Overall, 42 percent of teens involved had moderate to severe side effects and most received emergency-room treatment.
The true number of teen abusers who have bad side effects is probably much higher, because many cases don’t result in calls to poison control centers, said study author Dr. Randall Bond, medical director of the hospital’s Drug and Poison Information Center.
The surge, from 1998 to 2005, outpaced calls for teen substance abuse generally. It also paralleled an 86 percent rise in ADHD medicine prescriptions for those aged 10 to 19.
