Teens still commonly prescribed opioids at high rates

addiction recovery ebulletin teens and opioids

Teens Given Opioids Like Candy –

May 27, 2019 – “Adolescents and young adults are such a high-risk population for opioid misuse and future addiction,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Joel Hudgins, a clinical instructor at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. “We found the rates of opioid prescriptions were pretty high, at 15 percent, which is right in line with adult data.” … In 2016, nearly 400,000 young adults, ages 18 to 25 had an opioid-use disorder in the previous year, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. And it’s estimated that one in eight deaths in teens and young adults is linked to opioids, according to an editorial published alongside the new study.

To get a sense of how many teens and young adults, ages 13 to 22, were receiving prescriptions for opioids in the ER and outpatient clinics —and for what conditions — Hudgins and his colleagues turned to two nationally representative databases: the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.