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News Release
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
NIH Podcast Shines Light on Prescription Drug Abuse in Women
Prescription drug abuse means taking a prescription medication that is not prescribed for you, or taking it for reasons or in dosages other than as prescribed. Abuse of prescription drugs can produce serious health effects, including addiction. In 2008, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 15.2 million Americans age 12 and older had taken a prescription pain reliever, tranquilizer, stimulant, or sedative for nonmedical purposes at least once in the year prior to being surveyed.
The NIH's Office of Research on Women’s Health podcast, "Pinn Point on Women’s Health," provides updates on women’s health research, and is hosted by Vivian W. Pinn, M.D., director of NIH’s Office of Research on Women’s Health. This month, Dr. Pinn interviewed Nora Volkow, M.D., director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
Dr. Volkow stated that it is important to understand the sex and gender-based differences regarding drug abuse in order to better target prevention and treatment approaches.
"In general, males tend to take more drugs than females. The exception is the period of time between 12 and 17 years of age. There, we see a higher rate of abuse of most drugs, including psychotherapeutics, among girls than among boys," Dr. Volkow said.
Drugs of abuse also include pain medications that contain opiates, such as Vicodin or OxyContin, as well as stimulant medications, which are used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Dr. Volkow noted that adolescent girls have almost 60 to 70 percent higher rates of abuse of these substances than adolescent boys.
"Adolescents and young adults take stimulant medications to improve cognitive performance, to study for an exam, or to prepare for something that requires a deadline involving intense work," Dr. Volkow said. In addition, girls take stimulants in order to lose weight. Stimulant medications are anorexigenic; meaning, they reduce feelings of hunger.
Not surprisingly, prescription drug abuse can result in addiction. Dr. Volkow has conducted imaging studies that show how repeated drug use affects the brain.
"Not only are there disruptions in the circuits involved in reward (the ability to feel pleasure), and learning; but also in frontal areas of the brain that are involved with executive control and that enable you to make decisions, to judge, to control your desires and your emotions," Dr. Volkow said.
There exists a misguided belief that abuse of prescription drugs is less dangerous than that of illicit substances because they are prescribed by physicians. "When you take psychotherapeutics outside the surveillance of a physician, these medications can be as dangerous as illicit substances," Dr. Volkow said. She noted the importance of educating both the public as well as the health care system about how these drugs work, under what conditions their use is beneficial and under what conditions their use can lead to adverse medical consequences.
Treatment for addiction will depend on the type of psychotherapeutic used. "For opiate analgesics, we have medications that look quite promising. We're currently conducting a trial to investigate the use of buprenorphine in the treatment of addiction to opiate analgesics, and the results appear to be quite promising," Dr. Volkow said.
There are also several evidence based behavioral interventions that include motivation intervention strategies, incentive intervention strategies, and group therapy intervention strategies that have been shown to be effective. For information on treatment options in your area, go to http://www.samhsa.gov/ or call 1-800-662-HELP (1-800-662-4357).
To hear Dr. Pinn’s podcasts, visit the Office of Research on Women's Health home page at http://orwh.od.nih.gov and click on "Prescription Drug Abuse" under Podcasts. Information on how to use podcasts, is available at http://videocast.nih.gov/faq/podcast/default.asp.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse is a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIDA supports most of the world's research on the health aspects of drug abuse and addiction. The Institute carries out a large variety of programs to inform policy and improve practice. Fact sheets on the health effects of drugs of abuse and information on NIDA research and other activities can be found on the NIDA home page at http://www.drugabuse.gov.
The Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH), Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health (NIH) serves as a focal point for women’s health research at the NIH. For more information about NIH's Office of Research on Women’s Health, visit http://orwh.od.nih.gov/.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
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