Painkillers open way to high-risk behaviours
July 25th, 2011 - 8:32 pm ICT by IANSWashington, July 25 (IANS) Indiscriminate use of painkillers may open the way to drug abuse among people with a history of using both types of drugs, a study says.
The study, by Drexel University’s School of Public Health researchers, explores factors surrounding young drug users’ initiation into the misuse of opioid drugs.
Opioids are among the world’s oldest known drugs. Their painkilling effects are due to decreased perception of pain, decreased reaction to pain as well as increased pain tolerance.
The results support a need for efforts to prevent misuse of prescription drugs, particularly during adolescence, the International Journal of Drug Policy reports.
“Participants were commonly raised in households where misuse of prescription drugs, illegal drugs or alcohol was normalised,” explains Stephen Lankenau, associate professor at Drexel and principal study investigator.
“Access to prescription medications - either from a participant’s own source, a family member, or a friend - was a key feature of initiation into prescription drug misuse,” he added, according to a Drexel statement.
Opioid misuse is an important public health concern due to the increasing association of opioids with drug dependence and fatal overdose.
Researchers interviewed 50 young intravenous drug users aged between 16 and 25 years, who had misused a prescription drug at least three times in the past three months, to study contextual factors leading to their use of opioid drugs.
- Mood, anxiety disorders patients likely to abuse painkillers - Dec 14, 2011
- Opioids now most prescribed class of medications in US - Apr 06, 2011
- Higher opioid doses may cause overdose in chronic pain patients - Jan 19, 2010
- Gender differences found in risk factors for pain drug abuse - Apr 28, 2010
- Warning over health risks of addictive painkillers - Sep 05, 2010
- Risk factors for painkiller addiction identified - Aug 29, 2010
- Accidental drug poisoning of children shoots up - Sep 16, 2011
- Prescriptions for painkillers stepping stone for drug addiction - Aug 21, 2010
- Poisoning by prescription drugs endemic in US - Apr 06, 2010
- NY drug overdose deaths decline 27% over past two years - Mar 02, 2010
- Being pessimistic may lower painkiller's effectiveness: Study - Feb 17, 2011
- Misuse of over-the-counter pain relievers can cause severe liver damage - May 03, 2011
- Popular painkillers can turn into real killers - Dec 02, 2011
- Illicit use of human growth hormone on the rise among male weightlifters - Jan 21, 2011
- Pharmacy errors 'may put kids at high risk of painkiller overdose' - May 01, 2011
Tags: contextual factors, drexel university, drug dependence, drug misuse, high risk, illegal drugs, intravenous drug users, lankenau, least three times, misuse of prescription drugs, opioid drugs, pain tolerance, prescription drug, prescription medications, principal study, public health concern, public health researchers, risk behaviours, school of public health, types of drugs