The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) 2009 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) reports that one in five U.S. teens have abused prescription drugs. The national survey found that 23 percent of white high school students, 17 percent of Hispanics and 12 percent of blacks abuse medications such as Ritalin, Xanax and Percocet. The survey also found that 72 percent of teens have used alcohol, 37 percent have used marijuana, 6.5 percent have used cocaine, 4.1 percent have used methamphetamine and 6.7 percent have used ecstasy.
The CDC survey examined risk behaviors in more than 16,000 U.S. high school students including unintentional injuries and violence; drug and alcohol use; tobacco, alcohol and other drug use; sexual behaviors leading to pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease; and diet and physical inactivity that contributes to obesity. The researchers found that 19 percent of teen smoked cigarettes, 28 percent rode in a car with a driver who had been drinking and 39 percent did not use a condom with sexual intercourse.
However, the survey also showed positive trends in nutrition behaviors among high school students. The survey reported a decrease in teens who drank soda, a decrease in teens who engaged in unhealthy behaviors to lose weight (such as not eating, taking diet pills) and an increase in teens who ate fruit or drank fruit juices.
“We are concerned to learn that so many high school students are taking prescription drugs that were not prescribed to them,” says Howell Wechsler, EdD, MPH, director of CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health, in a press release. ”Some people may falsely believe that prescription drugs are safer than illegal drugs, yet their misuse can cause serious adverse health effects, including addiction and death.”
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