Prescription for Danger: Troubled Teens Using Medicines to Get High | WinGate Wilderness Therapy

The medicine cabinet may seem like a strange place to look for a way to get high. But a growing number of troubled teenagers are raiding their parents’ pill bottles or buying prescription drugs illegally through Internet pharmacies and dealers. WinGate Wilderness Therapy's admission counselors will guide you to solutions that will help your troubled teen. They are available at 1-866-439-3429 for positive changes in your troubled teens lives. There is hope and peace around the corner for you and your troubled teen.

From potent painkillers to humble cough syrups, the same medicines that can help patients can also be misused to produce a high feeling. And they can hurt teens or hook them into addiction just as easily as any other illicit drugs. “Prescription drug use is becoming more of a problem among teens, and the trend has been increasing in the last three to four years,” says Maher Karam-Hage, M.D., medical director of the Chelsea Arbor Treatment Center, which U-M operates in conjunction with Chelsea Community Hospital. “These drugs can be highly addictive if they’re used on an ongoing basis, and the person can become physically, psychologically and behaviorally addicted to them.”


Teens use prescription or over-the-counter drugs to get high than use “harder” drugs like heroin, cocaine or Ecstasy. Recent anonymous survey results show that one in every 10 high school seniors had used the painkiller Vicodin in the last year without a doctor’s orders. Roughly the same number had used the stimulant Ritalin in the last year, about 6 percent had used tranquilizers, and 4.5 percent had used the super-potent painkiller OxyContin. Those figures, which came from the 2003 Monitoring the Future survey of 48,500 students across the country conducted by the U-M Institute for Social Research, hint at how big the problem really is, says Karam-Hage. Other data, from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, indicate that the sharpest increases in new users of prescription drugs for non-medical purposes have been in 12-to-25 year-olds.


Although alcohol and marijuana still account for most teen substance use, the recent increases in use of inhalants, stimulants, painkillers and tranquilizers mean more kids are putting themselves at risk — possibly thinking that medicines are “safe.” It’s never safe to use drugs that a doctor prescribed for someone else, to use prescription drugs in a different way or higher dose than a doctor prescribed, or to obtain a prescription drug without a real medical reason, Karam-Hage says. Not only can drugs interact with other drugs a person is taking, they can also cause serious side effects, become addictive, or kill.


The broad range of medications that troubled teens and young adults are using makes the problem even tougher to spot and treat, Karam-Hage warns. “Boys seem to like more stimulants, like Ritalin and amphetamines, as well as steroids, while girls tend to use ‘hypnotics’ – benzodiazepines like Valium, Xanax, and Ativan,” he explains. “Also commonly abused, among both boys and girls, are drugs we call opioids, which are the famous OxyContin and Vicodin.”


Each of these drugs affects the brain in different ways, but teens use them to try to achieve a high feeling that can range from euphoria or intoxication to super-calm. Their chemical formulas are often related to those of “hard” drugs, which means their effects can be just as bad, says Karam-Hage, who is a clinical assistant professor in the U-M Medical School Department of Psychiatry.

Facts about prescription drug and over-the-counter medicine abuse:

• Use and abuse of medicines to get high is a common and growing practice among teenagers and young adults. Only alcohol and marijuana are more popular. Teens may use painkillers, ADD drugs, tranquilizers, anxiety drugs and even cough syrup to get high.

• Even though prescription drugs and drugstore remedies seem “safe”, they can be addictive or harmful if used incorrectly, taken in high doses, or used by people with no medical reason.

• Never take a prescription drug that wasn’t prescribed to you, and when you have a prescription, follow instructions for use of both prescription and over-the-counter medicines.

• Parents should talk to their teens and pre-teens about the dangers of abusing medicines to get high, keep an eye on teens’ Internet use and mail, keep prescription drugs out of reach, and watch for changes in behavior and grades that can signal many forms of drug abuse.

• If you discover or strongly suspect that your teen is abusing medications, seek help by contacting WinGate Wilderness Therapy 1-866-439-3429