Recent research has highlighted concerns that legitimate medicinal use of prescribed opioid pain medications may be a pathway to opioid misuse and opioid use disorders among adults, raising new questions about the risks versus benefits of these drugs in treating some forms of chronic pain. A new study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) shows that teens who received a prescription for opioid pain medication by grade 12 were at 33 percent increased risk of misusing an opioid between ages 19 and 25. Strikingly, the risk was found to be most concentrated among teens who would be expected to be at low risk of drug misuse: those with no illicit drug experience and those who reported that they disapproved of regular marijuana use. Among those with low predicted risk of future opioid use in 12th grade, having an opioid prescription increased their risk of post-high-school opioid misuse three-fold.
NIDA Science Update: Teen Opioid Prescriptions Raise Risk of Later Opioid Misuse
Year: 2015