Misuse of illicit prescription drugs has declined significantly among U.S. high school seniors The percentage who’ve misused prescription drugs in the past year has fallen from 11% to 2% It’s harder to get the drugs, researchers say WEDNESDAY, July 24, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Misuse of illicit prescription drugs is falling dramatically among U.
S. high school students, a new study says. The percentage of seniors who say they’ve misused prescription drugs in the past year has dropped to 2% in 2022, down from 11% back in 2009, researchers reported July 24 in the Journal of the American Medical Association .
"To put these findings in context, the reduction over the past decade was like going from 1 in every 9 high school students using prescription drugs non-medically down to 1 in every 40 high school students," said researcher Sean Esteban McCabe , director of the University of Michigan Center for the Study of Drugs, Alcohol, Smoking and Health. For the study, researchers tracked trends regarding the three types of prescription drugs most commonly misused by teens -- opioids, stimulants (for example, Ritalin and Adderall) and benzodiazepines (drugs such as Xanax and Valium). They used data collected by the University of Michigan as part of an annual survey of high school students.
Not only has illicit use declined, but even legitimate use for medical reasons has dropped among teens. About 16% of high school seniors said in 2022 they’ve ever been prescribed one of these .