Prescription Drug Information

CADY Inventory for Meds Card

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Medicine Abuse Awareness Month

The good news is that teens are turning away from street drugs. While this is true, there's a new threat from the family medicine cabinet - the abuse of prescription (Rx) and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs.

CADY CORNER

October, 2009

October is “National Medicine Abuse Awareness Month

The good news is that teens are turning away from street drugs.While this is true, there’s a new threat from the family medicine cabinet – the abuse of prescription (Rx) and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs.

According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in 2008, there were 2.5 million people, aged 12 or older who used prescription medicines non-medically for the first time within the past year, averaging out to around 7,000 new users per day. And according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s Monitoring the Future Survey, 4 percent of 8th graders, 5 percent of 10th graders, and 7 percent of 12th graders reported having abused medicines containing the cough suppressant DXM in 2005 to get high. The Partnership for a Drug-Free America found that one in 10 teenagers – or about 2.4 million young people – reported having abused cough medicine to get high.

Misuse of Prescription Drugs

The abuse of prescription drugs is quickly becoming an epidemic. They're easy to get and simple to distribute. Gone are the days when people need to go to a seedy street corner to get high. Now, they just need to go to a medicine cabinet or Grandma's purse. Courtesy of the Partnership for a Drug Free America, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, CADY is able to provide the following valuable information to the community about this growing issue. There are many misconceptions out there about the abuse of "legal" drugs and this following vital questions and answers will shed some light on this important issue.

Download: Misuse of Prescription Drugs

Protect Your Kids — Prescription Drug Alert

Prescriptions Used as Dangerous New Party Drugs

Prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) medications are fast becoming the new party drugs for many teenagers.

The new trend among youth is known as “pharming” - that is, kids' using prescription and OTC drugs for recreational use. Parents must put this on their radar screens - one in five teens have used powerful narcotic pain relievers for non-medical reasons.

Many parents are not aware that their own medicine cabinets are potential sources of these drugs for teenage abuse. Young people also purchase these drugs on-line.

We're NOT talking about kids mistakenly taking the wrong dose of legal medicines or taking a stronger-than-necessary medicine for an ailment. We are talking about drug abuse - kids using prescription and OTC drugs on purpose in order to get high. This practice is life threatening and a child or youth may die with first time use.

Did You Know?

• 4.5 million American kids have reported that they've abused prescription drugs.
• 2.1 million American kids have intentionally abused cough syrup. Every day 2,700 teens try a prescription medicine to get high for the first time.
• Half of teens do not see a great risk in abusing prescription (Rx) or over-the-counter (OTC) drugs. Teens believe that abuse of Rx and OTC medicines is safer than street drugs. Such drugs are easily accessible via medicine cabinets, purses, and the internet.
• Over half of teens agree prescription drugs are easier to get than illegal drugs.
• 1 in 3 teens report having a close friend who abuses Rx pain relievers to get high.
• 1 in 4 teens report having a close friend who abuses cough medicines to get high.
• Only 31% of teens learn a lot about the risk of drugs from their parents.
• Emergency room visits due to abuse of prescription drugs are more than the number of visits due to marijuana and heroin combined.

What Can You Do?

It's up to you to educate yourself about the real dangers of prescription and OTC drug abuse and to discuss these risks with your teen. Kids need to hear from parents that getting high on legal prescription and OTC drugs is just as dangerous as getting high on illegal street drugs. Research shows that kids who learn about drug risks from their parents are half as likely to use drugs as kids who haven't had that conversation with Mom and Dad.

Tips for Communicating With Your Teen

• Set An Example - Use drugs as the doctor intended. Don't medicate today's headache or sore muscles with a prescription drug medication your doctor gave you after last year's surgery. Use OTC medicines according to packaged instructions or your doctor's recommendations.
• Connect With Your Kids - Stay involved with your kids' lives as they go through middle school and into high school. Use part of your daily conversation to talk honestly about prescription and OTC drug abuse. Know the facts – clear up wrong information, but don't make it all a lecture. Listen to your children's questions and comments about their drug topics of concern.
• Stop the Myth - Getting high with prescription and OTC medication is NOT safer than getting high with illicit street drugs.
• Help Your Child Make Good Decisions - Your child is more likely to be offered drugs by a friend than a stranger, and exposure to drugs can begin as early as age 12. Give your child the ammunition to make clear to his or her acquaintances that the consequences from abusing these drugs are too severe to risk it. Remind your child that a real friend won't care if he or she makes the right choice and decides not to abuse these medications.
• Take Action - Inventory your medicine cabinets, kitchen cabinets, bureau tops or anywhere you may store medicines. If necessary, monitor the pill quantities and medicine levels in your prescription and OTC drug containers. Put drugs away out of sight. If you currently need medication, put it in a place where you can get them easily but where your child is unlikely to look. If drugs in your house are left over from a previous condition, dispose of them as soon as possible in a safe and effective way.

A survey of teenagers by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America found that:

• 1 in 5 teens has tried Vicodin®, a powerful and addictive narcotic pain reliever
• 1 in 10 has tried OxyContin®, another prescription narcotic
• 1 in 10 has used the stimulants Ritalin® or Adderall® for nonmedical purposes
• 1 in 11 teens has admitted to getting high on cough medicine

Vicodin (generic name:hydrocodone), manufactured by Abbott. OxyContin (generic name:oxycodone), manufactured by Perdue Pharma LP. Ritalin (generic name:methylphenidate), manufactured by Ciba-Geigy Corp. Adderall (generic name:mixed amphetamine salts), manufactured by Shire US.

You DO have the power to influence your child's decision about whether or not to use prescription and OTC drugs for recreation. Research says that fear of upsetting parents is the number one reason why kids do not use drugs.

More information is available from the following national organizations: Partnership for a Drug-Free America, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services, National Institute on Drug Abuse. Locally, contact CADY at 536-9793 or visit us on line at www.cadyinc.org.

 

Download: Protect Your Kids - Prescription Drug Alert 

 

Prescription Available for Pickup

When Teens Want To Get High...

YOUR PRESCRIPTION IS AVAILABLE FOR PICK UP.

TEENS ARE ABUSING PRESCRIPTION DRUGS THEY FIND AT HOME. HERE'S WHAT THEY ARE DOING—AND HOW PARENTS CAN STOP IT.

It can be medication left over from your last surgery. Maybe they're the pills your keep on the dresser or tucked inside your purse. Teens are finding prescription drugs whererever people they know keep them—and abusing them to get high.  In fact, 70 percent of persons age 12 and older who abuse prescription painkillers say that they get them from a relative or friend¹—leading to several troubling trends:

• Every day, 2,500 kids age 12 to 17 try a painkiller for the first time.²
• Prescription drugs are the drugs of choice for 12 and 13 year olds.³
• Teens abuse precription drugs more than any illicit street drug except marijuana.⁴

What's also disturbing is they don't realize these drugs can be as dangerous as street drugs.  So kids who would never try street drugs might feel safe abusing prescription drugs.  Misinterpretation about prescription drug abuse have serious consequences.  In fact, drug treatment admissions for prescription painkillers increased more than 300 percent from 1995 to 2005.⁵  Now that you know prescription drug abuse is a problem, here are ways parents can keep it from affecting their kids lives:

• Safeguard all drugs at home.  Monitor quantities and control access.
• Set clear rules for teens about all drug use, including not sharing medicine and always following the medical provider's advice and dosages.
• Be a good role model by following the same rules with your own medicines.
• Properly conceal and dispose of old or unused medicines in the trash.
• Ask friends and family to safeguard their prescription drugs as well.

Following these steps is a start.  Let your teen know where you stand.  When you talk about drugs and alcohol, include prescription drugs in the conversation.  To learn more, visit http://www.theantidrug.com or call 1-800-788-2800.

What's happening on the local level?

In 2007 the results of the TAP survey (Teen Assessment Project) administered to youth in the Pemi-Baker Region showed that 8% of students reported misusing over-the-counter or prescription medicines not prescribed to them.

_______________________________________________________________________

1. 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, SAMHSA, September 2007.
2. lbid.
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5. 2005 Treatment Episode Data Set, SAMHSA, September 2007.

 

Download: Prescription Available for Pickup flyer 

Download: CADY Inventory for Meds Card

 

Prescription Drugs Over the Counter

Think about your home. What prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs do you have? Where are they kept? Would you know if some were missing? The good news is that you can take steps immediately to limit access to these drugs and help keep your teen drug-free:

Download: RX Drugs Over the Counter PDF (370 Kb) 

 

Prescription Drug Safety for Seniors

Medication is more than just the drugs your doctor prescribes. It includes over-the-counter (OTC) products, vitamins and minerals, herbal and natural health products.

• Keep an up-to-date record of your prescription medication and nonprescription products, allergies, illnesses, and other health information.
• Bring current prescription medications at least once a year to your primary care doctor’s office and have them reviewed to verify that each medication is still useful and appropriate, and to ensure that the combination of medications is safe.
• Store medication in a cool dry place, away from direct sunlight unless otherwise directed. Most people keep medications in the bathroom medicine cabinet, where they can get damp and lose potency. A dry place such as a kitchen cabinet or bedroom is a better storage location as long as the medications are out of reach of children, not readily visible to strangers, and safely locked away.
• When visiting a home with young children, make sure medications in purses, bathroom kits, and suitcases are not available to children. If young children visit your home, remember to keep medication and household chemicals locked or out of children’s reach. Avoid taking medication in front of very young children, as they like to imitate.
• Be careful of weekly pill minders, they help to organize medication but most are not child resistant. If you wish to use a pill organizer, please ask your pharmacist for advice.
• DO NOT leave medications in an unlocked vehicle or lying around in unsupervised shopping bags or purses.
• If you have difficulty opening the safety cap of your medication bottle, ask your pharmacist for an easy off or flip top lid. If you have these types of bottles, it is even MORE important to keep them away from children!! 
• Medication must never be shared. What helps you may seriously hurt someone else.
• Do not transfer or mix medication into other containers. For example, don’t mix different medications in the same bottle to save space or for traveling. Check medications several times a year to make sure they have not expired. If you don’t know if a medication is still good, check with your pharmacist. Don’t hold on to medications you don’t need!
• Do not put medication down the toilet or sink. Check with your pharmacy to see if they have a medication disposal program. If you must dispose of medications, mix them with coffee grounds, cat litter or other such “waste” materials to render them unusable, and throw them away. Never throw old medicines away in their original containers.

 

Are you a hazard to your grandchildren?

A study conducted by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission states that 36 percent of childhood ingestion accidents related to prescriptions involve a grandparent’s medication. Prescriptions for older adults are some of the most toxic medications, posing the greatest threat of a tragic outcome if ingested by a child. Even the most loving grandparents can put their grandchildren in danger when they unknowingly overlook simple precautions. It is more important than ever that grandparents be familiar with poison prevention procedures.

 

Download: Prescription Drug Safety for Seniors 

 

TAD (the Anti-Drug) Rx Wallet Card

Download: TAD Rx Wallet Card

 

Teen Prescription Drug Abuse

What can you do? Tips for Preventing Rx Abuse

Think about your home. What prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs do you have? Where are they kept? Would you know if some were missing? The good news is that you can take steps immediately to limit access to these drugs and help keep your teen drug-free:

1. Safeguard all drugs at home. Monitor quantities and control access.  Take note of how many pills are in a bottle or pill packet, and keep track of refills. This goes for your own medication, as well as for your teen and other members of your household. If you find you have to refill medication more often than expected, there could be a real problem—someone may be taking your medication without your knowledge. If your teen has been prescribed a drug, be sure you control the medication, and monitor dosages and refills. Think about your home. What prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs do you have? Where are they kept? Would you know if some were missing? The good news is that you can take steps immediately to limit access to these drugs and help keep your teen drug-free.


2. Set clear rules for teens about all drug use, including not sharing medicine and always following the medical provider’s advice and dosages. Make sure your teen uses prescription drugs only as directed by a medical provider and follows instructions for OTC products carefully. This includes taking the proper dosage and not using with other substances without a medical provider’s approval. Teens should never take prescription or OTC drugs with street drugs or alcohol. If you have any questions about how to take a drug, call your family physician or pharmacist.


3. Be a good role model by following these same rules with your own medicines. Examine your own behavior to ensure you set a good example. If you misuse your prescription drugs, such as share them with your kids, or abuse them, your teen will take notice. Avoid sharing your drugs and always follow your medical provider’s instructions.


4. Properly conceal and dispose of old or unused medicines in the trash. Unused prescription drugs should be hidden and thrown away in the trash. So that teens or others don’t take them out of the trash, you can mix them with an undesirable substance (like used coffee grounds or kitty litter) and put the mixture in an empty can or bag. Unless the directions say otherwise, do NOT flush medications down the drain or toilet because the chemicals can pollute the water supply. Also, remove any personal, identifiable information from prescription bottles or pill packages before you throw them away.


5. Ask friends and family to safeguard their prescription drugs as well. Make sure your friends and relatives, especially grandparents, know about the risks, too, and encourage them to regularly monitor their own medicine cabinets. If there are other households your teen has access to, talk to those families as well about the importance of safeguarding medications. If you don’t know the parents of your child’s friends, then make an effort to get to know them, and get on the same page about rules and expectations for use of all drugs, including alcohol and illicit drugs. Follow up with your teen’s school administration to find out what they are doing to address issues of prescription and over-the-counter drug abuse in schools.

Talk to your teen about the dangers of abusing prescription and over-the-counter drugs. These are powerful drugs that, when abused, can be just as dangerous as street drugs. Tell your teen the risks far outweigh any “benefits.”

To learn more about Rx & OTC health risks, visit: http://www.theantidrug.com.

 

Download: Teen Prescription Drug Abuse Toolkit

 

Heads Up — Prescription Drugs: Their Use and Abuse

A prescription label is not just a bunch of words.  It's a doctor's instructions to a patient: only this person can take this medication, in this amount, for this length of time.  When the medication is taken on purpose for any other reason, that is called abuse.

Prescription drugs have helped millions of people with any number of medical problems.  Many people wouldn’t even be alive without these medicines. But you’ve probably noticed that prescription drugs come with warnings such as:

Caution: Federal law prohibits the transfer of this drug to any person other than the patient for whom it was prescribed.… Do not drive or operate machinery.… Take with food.… Avoid prolonged sunlight.

“The reason these drugs require a prescription is that they are powerful medications,” says Wilson Compton, MD, director of the Division of Epidemiology, Services and Prevention Research, at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

Used at certain dosage levels in certain forms at certain times, prescription drugs are safe and effective. But when they are used for nonmedical purposes, that is called abuse, and abuse of rescription drugs is not afe. Abuse of  prescription rug—to get igh, lose eight, or build up muscle—can  have very serious health consequences and can even be deadly.

 

Heads Up — Health Risks for Teens

Unfortunately, prescription drug abuse is on the rise. While it is important to note that most teens do not abuse prescription drugs, the current level of abuse of certain prescription drugs concerns NIDA scientists. In 2004, nearly 15 million Americans ages 12 and up—that’s 6.1 percent of the population—took a prescription drug for nonmedical purposes, according to a study by the federal government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The prescription drugs most often abused by teens are painkillers, antianxiety medications (benzodiazepines), stimulants, and steroids—powerful drugs that carry real health risks.

How many teens are abusing these drugs?  Enough to cause a lot of concern.  According to a 2004 NIDA study, 9.3 percent of high school seniors said they had abused the painkiller Vicodin in the past year. “That’s a huge and frightening number,” says Dr. Compton.  Also disturbing news is that 7.3 percent of 12th graders had abused benzodiazepines at least once in the last year, 5.1 percent had abused Ritalin, and 5 percent said they had abused the powerful pain reliever OxyContin. Adding to concern, teens in some communities are engaging in dangerous trading sessions, where they gather whatever medications they can find—old prescriptions of their own, pills from their families’ medicine cabinets—and swap them.

 

Heads Up — About Drugs and Your Body

Tracking Prescription Drug Abuse

Wilson Compton, MD, heads NIDA’s Division of Epidemiology, Services and Prevention Research. That means he’s in charge of tracking drug-abuse trends in this country, then helping figure out what to do about them. We talked with him about his job and about prescription drug abuse.

Q: HOW DO YOU IDENTIFY TRENDS AMONG TEENS AND DRUG ABUSE IN THIS COUNTRY?
A: We go directly to teens and ask about their use of drugs. We go to homes and interview teens personally as well as to schools to administer questionnaires.

Q: WHAT ARE THE KEY RESEARCH AREAS REGARDING TEENS AND PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE THAT YOU ARE INTERESTED IN TRACKING?
A: How many kids are using? What are their attitudes and behaviors?  Knowing this is useful in predicting future behavior and drug patterns.  Also, I’d like to know where kids get these drugs. Do they get them from their friends, the medicine cabinet, the Internet, drug dealers?

Q: WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO A TEEN WHO SAYS, “I DON’T HAVE ANYTHING TO WORRY ABOUT. I ONLY TAKE PRESCRIPTION DRUGS OCCASIONALLY”?
A: If your friend said to you that they were only taking heroin occasionally, would you be concerned? If your friend said they were only taking crystal meth occasionally, would you be concerned?  Prescription drugs have a lot of the same effects, and are just as dangerous as street drugs.”

 

Prescription Drug Health Alert for Teens

The following four categories show the dangers of the prescription drugs most abused by teens. 

Opioids

OxyContin® and Vicodin® are opioids. These drugs are prescribed to treat severe pain.

Dangers When Abused

• Extremely addictive
• Slowing down one’s breathing or stopping it altogether (death)
• Particularly dangerous with alcohol

Benzodiazepines

Xanax, Valium, and Librium are examples of benzodiazepines—central nervous system (CNS) depressants—prescribed to treat anxiety, acute stress reactions, nd panic attacks. The more sedating enzodiazepines, such as Halcion and roSom, are prescribed for short-term tatment of sleep disorders.

Dangers When Abused

• Can slow breathing and heartbeat, specially if combined with rescription pain medicines, certain over-the-counter cold and allergy medications, or alcohol.
• Discontinuing prolonged use of high doses can lead to withdrawal and possible seizures

Stimulants

Ritalin and Adderall are prescribed mainly for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.  These drugs are known as stimulants.

Dangers When Abused

• Extremely addictive
• Extremely high body temperature

Anabolic Steroids

Anadrol, Oxandrin, and Durabolin are anabolic steroids—artificial versions of the hormone testosterone. They are prescribed in certain cases of delayed puberty or muscle wasting.

Dangers When Abused

• Infertility
• Breast development in males
• Facial hair in females
• Halted bone growth
• Liver tumors
• Cancer
• Premature heart attacks*

* Some of the health consequences of steroid abuse take months or years to develop, and they may occur long after a
person has stopped taking these drugs. For example, people who abuse steroids increase their risk for having heart
attacks at a young age.

 

Heads Up — Get the Facts

NIDA scientists are searching for reasons why teens abuse prescription drugs. One reason may simply be availability. The number of prescriptions being written has gone way up in recent years, especially for pain relievers and stimulants.

Another reason is that abusers may mistakenly believe that prescription drugs, because they come from a pharmacy and not a drug dealer, are safer to take, even at high doses or without a prescription.  And still another might be that abusing prescription drugs follows a pattern of behavior among people who abuse other drugs.

 

Myths About Prescription Drugs—and the Facts!

Percentage of High School Seniors Who Have Abused Prescription Drugs at Least Once in 2004 This data is taken from the 2004 Monitoring the Future survey, a yearly study of the behaviors, attitudes, and values of teens in America. For information on the latest findings, visit www.monitoringthefuture.org.

Myth: Prescription drugs come from a doctor and a pharmacy, so they must be safe.
Fact: If they are not taken responsibly and exactly as the doctor intended, prescription medicines can land you in the emergency room—or the morgue.

Myth: It’s OK for me to use a prescription from the medicine cabinet that was prescribed for someone in my family.
Fact: Just because a medication has been prescribed doesn’t mean it is appropriate and safe for everyone. Many prescribed medicines are custom fit to the patient’s medical history, weight, allergies, etc. Bottom line: Never take anyone else’s prescriptions. It’s not only unsafe—it’s illegal.

 

Heads Up — Killer Painkillers

Just how harmful are the most abused prescription drugs?  Extremely harmful.

One of the most dangerous is OxyContin, a pill that is designed to deliver pain relief over a 12-hour period. After the patient swallows the pill, medicine is released into the body little by little. But some abusers bypass the time-release system by crushing or chewing the pills. That way, they get all of the drug in their system at one time, and the body responds very differently. It’s like taking several doses of medicine all at once.

The risk of overdose then becomes huge. And an overdose of OxyContin can kill you.

To make matters worse, young people may abuse OxyContin at parties where alcohol is also on hand. This is a deadly situation because both OxyContin and alcohol can depress respiration (in other words, slow down a person’s breathing or stop it altogether).

When the two substances are taken together, the risk of serious harm or death becomes much greater than with either taken alone.

Sadly, last year this combination claimed the life of a 20-year-old student at the University of California, San Diego. Daniel died in his dorm room after he took OxyContin to get high, then drank alcohol at a party. Daniel had a 3.2 grade-point average. He wanted to be a lawyer. Prescription drug abuse killed that dream.

What about Vicodin, Ritalin, and Adderall? Can they kill you?  Yes, definitely—but not nearly as easily as OxyContin can. Can they land you in the hospital? Yes. But the biggest known risk—and it is a real and serious risk—is addiction.

 

Heads Up — Life of Addiction?

When a person becomes addicted to a drug, his or her brain is changed.  Normally, the brain’s pleasure center releases the neurotransmitter dopamine in response to positive experiences like a walk on the beach, a chat with friends, or victory in a big game. When a person becomes addicted to a drug, all those things lose their impact and diminish in importance. All that matters is finding and taking the drug that changed their brain to begin with.

“That’s a terrible life sentence,” says Dr. Compton. “It means your life gets narrower instead of bigger.”

 

Heads Up — Use as Directed

A recent NIDA-sponsored survey found that one in four teens with legitimate prescriptions said other kids had asked them for pills.

Students need to know that abusing prescription drugs is no different from abusing illegal drugs.  If you wind up addicted to a painkiller or hospitalized because you’ve stopped breathing, it makes no difference whether the drugs that got you there were picked up from a legitimate pharmacy or bought from a drug dealer.

Now that you have the facts about prescription drug abuse, share them with your friends and family. Everyone needs to understand that abusing prescription drugs is a prescription for disaster

 

WAKE UP CALL:  Steroid Abuse

If you follow the news, you’ve been hearing a lot lately about anabolic steroids in pro sports. These drugs are sometimes prescribed to treat body wasting in patients with AIDS and other diseases that result in loss of lean muscle
mass. They are also prescribed to boys or men to treat conditions that occur when the body produces abnormally low amounts of testosterone, such as delayed puberty and some types of impotence.

But recently, some professional, amateur, and Olympic athletes have been accused of abusing steroids to improve their performance—to cheat, in other words.

Why do some athletes take steroids? The drugs build muscle and bone mass—mainly by stimulating the muscle and bone cells to make new protein.

Athletes who abuse steroids can train longer and build new muscle more quickly.  But when used for this reason,
steroids are dangerous. Steroids can disrupt the normal production of hormones in the body and can cause side effects ranging from stunted growth in young people, to facial hair in women or breast growth in males, to premature
heart attacks, cancer, and serious psychiatric problems.

For help with a drug problem or to locate treatment centers, go to www.findtreatment.samhsa.gov, or call the national hotline at 1-800-662-HELP.

 

Download: Heads Up - Real news about Prescription Drugs 

Download: Teen Prescription Drug Abuse Toolkit