More U.S. teens getting dangerous prescriptions: study

Article

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) – The chance that a teenager or young adult will received a prescription for a controlled medication has nearly doubled in the last 15 years in the United States, according to a study

In 2007, one of out every nine teens and one out of six young adults in their 20s received prescriptions for medication such as pain killers, sedatives and stimulants that could potentially be abused, the study, led by Robert Fortuna at the University of Rochester in New York, warned.

While he told Reuters Health that this doesn't necessarily mean that teenagers and young adults will either abuse the medications or pass them onto others, it does reinforce the need to let people know how dangerous the drugs can be -- and the need to monitor their use.

In 1994, only 6 percent of teens received a prescription for a controlled medication. By 2007, more than 11 percent were getting them. The same trend held for young adults, increasing from 8 percent to 16 percent in the same time period.

I saw this on the frontpage of yahoo.coms news today and decided to share it here.

The article came out on Monday, but the report the article talks about is from 2007 I believe. Im not 100% sure on that yet but Im pretty sure its from 2007.

I wonder if there has been an increase in perscriptions since the time the report was written? I would think so.

That's some shocking stats.

Start them off young and end up with a pill popping generation, great for the Pharm Companies.

reply to post by JonoEnglish


I can barley even imagine the amount of profit big pharma is making these days. Imagine what it will be 10-20 years from now.

If these stats continue, doubling every 13 or so years, what will the future generations be like? Half of society on perscription drugs? More than half?

I wonder what new "conditions" will come out in the future that will require more and more pills to treat.

reply to post by buni11687


This is child abuse and human rights abuse.

I would say that most of these people should not be on any medication, or at least only short-term.

Huge profits here!

Forget humanity.

Here are some stats that I posted on a similar thread.

Here is something to ponder. Most people that are currently medicated for mental illness are also having suicidal thoughts because of the medication.

An alarming side effect: thoughts of suicide

As symptoms of depression go, there is none much clearer than having thoughts of suicide.

But a spate of recent announcements from federal health officials suggests a surprising new interpretation of suicidal fantasies and the depression they are thought to signal: Sometimes, sadness, anxiety and self-destructive thoughts are not symptoms but side effects -- of medicine.

In this year alone, federal regulators have warned that a surprising array of drugs could play a role in spurring thoughts of self-destruction. Medicines that treat epilepsy, asthma and influenza are now under suspicion, as is one that helps smokers kick the tobacco habit.


articles.latimes.com...

This is even more frightening, involving children and psychiatric drugs.

FACTS ABOUT FOSTER CARE CHILDREN
ABUSED WITH PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS
www.cchr.org...
This is short but to the point.
This was written by Citizens Commission on Human Rights.

Here is another story about a 7 yr old in Florida.
Florida Bans Foster Children from Drug Experimentation after 7 year old hangs himself
axiomamuse.wordpress.com...

This is a much deeper issue, both dangerous and long term.

This is scary and our children are being accustomed to being in a state of euphoria. This is a long term issue and should be looked at as such.

S&F.

Peace, NRE.

reply to post by NoRegretsEver


This is of huge concern.

Anti-depressant drugs warn, among a long unpleasant list of side effects, that you may feel depressed (?) and that it can take up to 6 weeks to have any ameliorating effect.

Surely if you are suicidally depressed, you can't wait 6 weeks to feel better?

The medication that they give kids is rediculous and I'm living proof. I grew up in a small town in Arizona that was about 60% white and 40% Hispanic in 6th grade we moved to a prodominately white suburb outside of Phoenix. I started having problems right away. I was suspended for fighting many times after being picked on and being called a spic or a wetback eventhough I am 1/2 Hispanic and 1/2 white. These were things I never experienced before and it took a toll on me. Immediately after I started having trouble they told me I had A.D.D. and A.D.H.D, where I came from this was fixed by a paddle in the pricipal's office, but in this strange new environment medication was the key. They started me on Zoloft because I seemed depressed and all I really wanted was to go home. I was forced to hangout with nothing but hispanic and black kids at school because the white kids didn't like me. I started getting into more and more trouble and got perscribed more and more medication. Years later in high school I started behaving worse. When that happened my medication went from ritalin to Aderal. I had no Idea what this was. I got into more trouble than I ever would have believed. I would sleep for about 2 hours then wake up and have to take another one before school. And my behavior was becoming more like a tweeker than a kid on medication. I faked taking my pills and spit them out and started doing alot better until my mom caught me and made me swallow every one. The trouble started again and I ended up getting kicked out of the entire school district and going back to my home-town to finish school. I was placed on probation after getting into some trouble at the school. And I was able to fake taking my medication again with my guardians. Then my probation officer saw that my medication was not showing up in my required drug tests and threatened to violate my probation. When my probation officer showed me the drug test, it showed a negative for methanphetimine. I said "I know, do I look like a tweaker?" He said "No, your medication is a methanphetamine and taking your medication is part of your probation." So there we went again being forced to take my medication. After that I got in even more trouble being arrested for 3 felonies and 5 misdemeanors and being put basically on house arrest. Oh and I got a girl pregnant (my awesome daughter is 10 now). I turned 18 and got off probation and never took a pill again and have done comparably well ever since. While all of this was going on, the doctor's view was that if I was getting into trouble it was time to up the dosage.

So that is my story on how prescribed medications, especially for kids needs to be heavilly tested and regulated. Oh and I failed to mention that eventhough I was in alot of trouble I never got one D on my report card and scored very high in my apptitude tests. If anyone here on ATS knows how to get a hold of a time machine, let me know so I can go back and make this right.

PARENTS!!! There are plenty of natural remedies and actions you can take before putting your kids on medications, and a little butt-whoopin never really hurt anybody!!!

Thanks for reading!

Ive just been prescribed a drug called Ondandestron....they work out at about £15 a pill.
How can this be??? Why and how are these drugs so expensive?? Its only nausea medication but costs almost £200 a week to have it.
Surely these drugs are mass preduced...prices shouldnt be this high...clearly big pharma is just raping us when we are most vunerable

EDIT: I was prescribed another drug before this called Metaclopramide...this drug is cheap as chips in comparrison to the Ondandestron BUT the side effects were rediculous. If you ever get prescribed Metaclopramide DO NOT TAKE IT....ITS POISON!!!

1 dose can leave you with a condition called Tardive Diskonesia...its like parkinsons but worse. The side effects of this cheap drug were rediculous...even 1 dose could ruin you for life yet they prescribed it without any warnings.

Its clear to me that cheap drugs leave you with all kinds of nasty side effects whereas the high priced ones dont seem to have such worrying side effects.
Im a firm believer that drug companies use drugs to make conditions so that they can then sell you more drugs to fix it.

reply to post by loves a conspiricy


They claim that they need to charge massive amounts to cover their reseaerch and development costs.
2nd

reply to post by JonoEnglish


Yea they claim but we all know its rubbish.
Most of these drugs have been around for decades....the research has been done.

From the age of 10 to 57 I have suffered nightmares every single night while sleeping. While most people look forward to hitting the pillow, I dreaded sleep because of the awful nightmares.

My doctor put me on 2.5 mg of valium before bed about six months ago and the night "terrors" magically stopped. I wake up feeling refreshed and ready to begin a new day and no longer dread going to bed.

The pharmaceutical companies are some of the biggest lobbyists and have real clout in Washington. (Read my location).

No, drugs should not be controlled in a free country. You can go to Mexico or Canada and get drugs cheaper and easier than here in the good old "free" USA.

FYI: America is not "land of the free" - that's an illusion.

With a co-pay I only pay $10.00 but if I didn't have my husband's insurance, I'de easily pay three / four times that. Then there is the cost of having to see your doctor every three months to get a refill.

It's all about control and you sheeple just don't see that, you actually want everything even more controlled.

While other countries allow their citizens to purchase most pharmaceuticals over the counter without a doctor's prescription, they don't have the drug problem we have here in America.
It's all about Control, control and more control, and that control is increasing year by year.

Our government in my opinion has their nose in too much of our business already.

My doctor tells me that he has to report to the state each month who and how much of certain drugs (like Valium) he prescribes.

Yet, alcohol is easy, cheap and not "reportable".

Again, once I started taking a very minimum amount of Valium at night, my nightmares stopped, and yes I do feel more relaxed, not stupified. It's better than wine or beer.

Why are so many people taking drugs?

Well maybe the ones that feel a need to take them see how the rest of the world is going to hell in a handbasket.

I've lived 58 years and have seen a relatively free country become very tightly controlled (yes I'm using that word a lot on purpose not senility) in a matter of just a few decades.

We now live in a fascist corporate dictatorship where our every move is watched and logged by someone.

Children are no longer allowed to be children, they're pressured by the frap Hollywood shows into being adults before they're a dozen years out of diapers.

Almost 50% of children now live in divorced homes and come home to a empty house after school because "mom' is working.

Our family unit in America is breaking down, our eductional system sucks and our economy is going down the tube.

They see a country ruled by the large corporations for profit and not by the people and for the people.

They see corruption and service to self prevail vs honesty and service to others.

A country hell bent on promoting surveillance of it's citizens and war on other countries in the name of "National Security" when in actuality it's for the greed and power.

We are on the verge of nuclear annihilation and the insane asylum is being run by the inmates.

It's a wonder most thinking people aren't on more drugs.

I won't even get into the cost to produce a pill and the actual cost to the customer, the mark up even with co-pay is ridiculous.

And you folks want yet more control.

reply to post by ofhumandescent


Hi, off

I am so glad your drugs worked for you.

But these kids should not be on drugs - especially our so-called over active kids - they arethe next inventors and saviours of the world.

To all parents of "difficult" kids - your kids may be saviours of the planet! Don't
drug them!

reply to post by JonoEnglish


I had a girlfriend that was a sales rep for Pfizer. She sold drugs to hospitals and was singlehandedly, without a husband or boyfriend able to buy a multi-million dollar house in Beverly Hills.

That's the mark up.

But here in America, the Big Pharma companies have quite a bit of clout in Washington.

Many older Americans are now buying their medicines in Canada and Mexico.

Part of America's problem is that our government is cozy bedfellows with and working for the large corporations and not for and by the people.

There in is the central problem.

Read "Hostile Takeover" by David Sirota.

I do not see how easy this is happening. Here in Alabama it is almost impossible for even an adult to get prescribed any type of narcotic. When you enter the clinics there are signs posted that they do not prescribe pain killers and you have to sign a form that you understand this before you are seen by the doctor. If you feel the need for those medications they refer you to to the emergency room. It is ridiculous. So it may be easy in some states, but in Alabama the doctors are too afraid of addiction and lawsuits than actually treating each patient individually without automatically assuming everyone is a drug addict.

reply to post by tinkytink1207


Tinkytink is right. Anyone who needs pain medication is required to go through an amazing amount of nonsense to ever even get treated. The general attitude of both the medical professionals and family and friends is that if you take pain meds you are only seeking to get "high". And if you are on them then you need help with your "addiction".
I had a good portion of my spine removed several years ago and I had to literally fight to get put on pain medications. Nobody will believe you're in pain until you lose a major amount of weight and turn into skin and bones (from 150lbs to 120lbs and no fat to begin with).
My injury is hidden so there is no obvious "need" that most people can see.
Before judging anyone on pain meds you might want to consider that perhaps they have cancer or some other affliction that is causing them pain.
It's bad enough to deal with the pain but you shouldn't have to fight with doctors and family over getting some relief from it.
I, personally don''t see how anyone could easily go out on the street and buy drugs like oxycontin. The controls are way too tight. I think these reports are bs of kids doing them all the time. As for other drugs I'm sure their abuse is rampant but certainly not pain killers.

Originally posted by ofhumandescent
reply to post by JonoEnglish

 

.

Part of America's problem is that our government is cozy bedfellows with and working for the large corporations and not for and by the people.

There in is the central problem.

Read "Hostile Takeover" by David Sirota.

I agree, it's a pity more people in America (not those on here) can't see it.

Thanks for the book recommendation, I'll put it on order.

Jono

reply to post by catwhoknows


We are in agreement, my one son that was diagnosed with ADHD was suppose to be on Ritalin and I refused to fill the prescription, too many bad things turned up in my research.

However, from age of 10 to just recently I suffered horrible nightmares and wished to god someone had prescribed something for me then........you cannot imagine 48 years of nightmares and it could have been eliminated with one small dosage.

Not all doctors are pill crazy and as stated before, with "controlled substances" doctors must report to the state each month who is on what.

reply to post by tinkytink1207


Same here in Illinois.

Part of this is because as my doctor told me in passing that he, like all doctors, must inform the state each month what "controlled substances" he prescribes out and to whom. So the state is keeping records of prescribed "controlled" substances.

He also said that as he has been a doctor for a long time, as each year passes the list of controlled substances is growing. America is very tightly controlled, drug wise and the noose is being tightened.

One person posted about pain.................I occassionally have my back go out since age 55 and nothing makes the pain go away except Vicodin. Now, with that when I occassionally use it, take half the dose because it is very strong. And I do not take it very often. One perscription will last me almost a year so my doctor is not concerned, but he said that there are patients of his, he feel sorry for because he knows they are in severe pain but the State I live in dictates that he may prescribe only so much.

While children should not be drugged, (my three sons never had ANY drugs except my middle son had to have antibiotics once at age ten), adult's should have more freedom like in other countries.

Now, if you want drugs over the counter you can get them via over seas pharmacies, but you run the risk of being screwed out of your money with the number of fraudulent pharmacies or the possiblity of inferior drugs that are either fake or not the correct dosage.

And, whats more, children can get these drugs - but, think of this, in countries, like Sweden and Germany where drugs are not as tightly controlled, there is less of a drug problem than here in America.

The root problem is our society, the drugs are a side affect.

People that abuse drugs are self-medicating themselves because something is drastically wrong in their lives and our society as a whole.

Originally posted by ofhumandescent
reply to post by tinkytink1207

 

The root problem is our society, the drugs are a side affect.

People that abuse drugs are self-medicating themselves because something is drastically wrong in their lives and our society as a whole.

Absolutely true ofhumandescent.
You often seem to hit the nail on the head.

So many Americans are trying to escape because things are so bleak and hope is nowhere to be found.