CNN
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In some middle and secondary schools in the United States, a new study of every 4 adolescents has informed that they had misused the described doping of the hyperactivity disorder in the lack of attention during the previous year.
“This is the first national study to look at the non -medical use of stimulants described by students in middle and high school, and we found a huge set of misuse,” said lead author Sean Esteban Maccabi, director of the study center. Drugs, alcohol, smoking and health at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbour.
“In some schools, there was no misuse of stimulants, while in other schools, more than 25 % of students used doping in non -medical ways,” said Mcabi, who is also a professor of nursing at the University of Michigan University. “This study is a great invitation to wake up.”
Non -medical uses of stimulants can include taking more than a natural dose to get a height, or take the medicine with Alcohol or other drugs To enhance height, Previous studies I found.
“The Pediatric Provers program in addiction medicine in New Haven, Contecticut.
We know that this happens in colleges. “The main meals for the new study are that the abuse and exchange of prescribed drugs stimulants occurs in middle and secondary schools, not just the university,” said Kaminga, who did not participate in the study.
Posted on Tuesday in the magazine Jama open networkThe study analyzed the data collected between 2005 and 2020 by monitoring the future, a federal survey that measured drug and alcohol use among high school students worldwide every year since 1975.
In the data collection used in this study, questionnaires were presented to more than 230,000 teenagers in the eighth, ten and twelve degrees in a representative sample at the national level of 3,284 secondary schools.
Schools with the highest rates Teenagers using the prescribed ADHD drugs The study found that students are more vulnerable to students using prescription stimulants during the past year. Mcabi said that schools that do not contain a few students who use such treatments have a much lower problem, but they have not disappeared.
He said: “We know that the two largest sources are remaining drugs, perhaps from family members such as siblings, and the question of peers, who may attend other schools.”
Schools in the suburbs in all regions of the United States, with the exception of the northeast, were higher than the misuse of hyperactivity disorder and lack of attention, as did the schools where one or more parents get a university degree, according to the study.
Schools that have more white students and those who have medium levels of drinking an evil student were more likely to see the abuse of teenagers from steroids.
On the individual level, students who said they used marijuana in the past thirty days were likely to abuse the drug disorder and attention disorder drugs from adolescents who did not use weeds, according to the analysis.
In addition, adolescents who said they used hyperactivity and attention disorder medications or in the past or in the past are 2.5 % more vulnerable than abuse of doping when compared The study found that their peers who did not use doping.
“But these results were not only driven by adolescents with hyperactivity disorder and lack of attention. “We still find an important connection, even when we have ever excluded students who have never prescribed ADHD treatment.”
The collection of data to study until 2020 has been. Since then, new statistics have shown that recipes for stimulants increased by 10 % during 2021 across most age groups. At the same time, there was a decrease in the country in Adderall, one of the most popular ADHD drugs, leaving many patients Unable to fill or re -fill medical prescriptions.
Experts say the risks are high: taking incorrectly stimulant medications over time can lead to a disorder of the use of stimulants, which may lead to anxiety, depression, psychosis and seizures.
If excessive use or integration with alcohol or other medications, there may be sudden health consequences. Side effects can include “bone madness, dangerous temperatures, and irregular heartbeat, especially if steroids are taken in large doses or in other ways other than swallowing birth control pills” Narcotics and mental health services department.
Research has also shown that people who misuse hyperactivity and attention disorder are likely to have Multiple drug abuse disorders.
Experts say that the abuse of stimulant drugs has grown over the past two decades It was diagnosed and described These medications – studies they have Maccabi said that the width of 1 in 9 of the elderly in high schools take a tonic for ADHD.
For children with hyperactivity disorder and attention shortage who use their medications appropriately, steroids can be an effective treatment. “They protect the child’s health.” “These adolescents who have been diagnosed, properly treated and monitored are working very well – they have less than new mental health problems or new drug use.”
What parents and care providers can do
Maccabi stressed the solution to the problem of misuse of stimulants among adolescents in middle and high schools does not limit the use of medications for children who really need them.
“Instead, we need to look long and arduous in school strategies that are more or less effective in curbing the misuse of stimulant drugs,” he said. “Parents can ensure that the schools attended by their children have a safe storage for drugs and strict dispensation policies. And ask about the spread of misuse – this data is available to each school.”
He added that families can also help by talking to their children about how to deal with their peers who are close to the desire for a pill or two for a party or withdrawing a study session throughout the night.
“You will be surprised by the number of children who do not know what to say.” “Parents can play roles with their children to give them options about what they say so that they are ready when this happens.”
Parents and guardians He added that the drugs that are controlled in the lock box should always be stored, and you should not be afraid of calculating the pills and staying on top of the early packages.
“Finally, if parents are suspected of any kind of abuse, they must contact their child’s distance immediately,” said Mcaby. “This child must be examined and evaluated immediately.”