Adolescent Substance Use: America’s #1 Public Health Problem
NEW YORK, NY, June 29, 2011 – Nine out of 10 Americans who meet the medical criteria for addiction¹ started smoking, drinking, or using other drugs before age 18, according to a national study released today by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University.
Adolescent Substance Use: America’s #1 Public Health Problem reveals that adolescence is the critical period for the initiation of substance use and its consequences. The CASA report finds 1 in 4 Americans who began using any addictive substance before age 18 are addicted, compared to 1 in 25 Americans who started using at age 21 or older.
Adolescent Substance Use at Epidemic Levels:
The CASA report underscores the fact that addiction is a disease with adolescent origins. The underdeveloped teen brain makes it likelier that teens will take risks, including using addictive substances that interfere with brain development, impair judgment and heighten their risk of addiction.
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1 in 3 high schoolers who use drugs, alcohol, cigarettes are addicted
Nearly half of all U.S. high school students currently smoke, drink or use other drugs, and a third of users meets the medical criteria for addiction, according to a report out Wednesday.
Adolescent substance use is “the number one public health problem any way you look at it,” says Susan Foster, the report’s lead researcher. Foster serves as vice president and director of policy research and analysis at The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, or CASA, at Columbia University. “This is an epidemic.”
Although teen use of cigarettes, marijuana and prescription drugs has declined in recent years, Foster says, “the improvements seem to have stalled,” and the use of smokeless tobacco has been rising since 2003.
The more than 400-page CASA report, which Foster calls the most comprehensive look at teen substance use to date, is based partly on nationally representative online surveys of 1,000 high school students, 1,000 parents of high school students and 500 school personnel, including teachers, principals, counselors and coaches.
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Drug-Related Suicide Attempts Rise Among Women 50 and Older
Suicide attempts, in which drugs played a role, jumped 49 percent among women ages 50 and older from 2005 to 2009, according to a new federal report. The report, prepared by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), found that 16,757 women 50 and older had a drug-related suicide attempt in 2009, compared with 11,235 in 2005.
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More Older Adults Seek Treatment for Substance Abuse
The number of older Americans who are seeking treatment for substance abuse is growing. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reports that treatment admissions doubled in adults age 50 and over between 1992 and 2008, according to The Associated Press.
Experts predict this trend will continue as baby boomers who developed substance abuse problems 30 or 40 years ago continue to age. Older adults are more likely to abuse alcohol than illicit drugs, the article states. According to the AP, treatment professionals say there are many older adults with substance abuse issues who are not seeking treatment.
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Study shows teen drug use trending in wrong direction
New York — Following a decade of steady declines, a new national study released today by The Partnership at Drugfree.org and MetLife Foundation indicates that teen drug and alcohol use is headed in the wrong direction, with marked increases in teen use of marijuana and Ecstasy over the past three years.
The 22nd annual Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS), sponsored by MetLife Foundation, affirms a disturbing trend that has emerged among American teens since 2008 and highlights that as underage drinking becomes more normalized among adolescents, parents feel unable to respond to the negative shifts in teen drug and alcohol use.
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Why it’s important to talk to children about drinking
Before age 9, children typically view drinking negatively. Between the ages of 9 and 13, they start to view alcohol more positively. Children become more aware of the drinking behavior of their parents and other adults. They often start asking questions about alcohol.
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More States Favoring Treatment Over Lock-up for Drug Offenses
For several decades now, states have taken a "nail 'em-and-jail 'em" approach to drug offenders. Their prisons have filled up -- drug arrests nearly tripled between 1980 and 2009, rising from 580,000 to 1.6 million,according to the FBI -- even as costs have mounted and evidence has grown that community treatment is more effective than prison for many low-level offenders.
Add shrinking budgets to the mix, and it's no wonder that The Wall Street Journal could report on March 5 that many states are now rolling back their punitive drug laws and investing in treatment instead of prison.
States that have already passed legislation of this kind include Colorado, Kentucky, New York, and South Carolina. Similar bills are under consideration in Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. (Serious drug crimes still carry harsh penalties.)
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CRC boosts Vivitrol for addiction treatment
McCaffrey, Eckert advocate monthly naltrexone injections to close “treatment gap”
By Dennis Grantham, Editor-in-Chief
Former U.S. drug czar General Barry McCaffrey and the CEO of CRC Health Group, Andy Eckert (pictured left), today announced their support for new addiction treatment protocols that combine detoxification and counseling with once-monthly injections of Vivitrol (naltrexone), a medication that the FDA approved in 2006 for alcoholism treatment and in fall of 2010 for treatment of opioid addiction.
The two men joined a host of Pennsylvania state and local officials in Philadelphia to draw attention to the large and growing population of people with untreated substance use disorders (SUDs)—some 250,000 in Pennsylvania and 21 million nationwide.
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Feds: Tobacco firms should run ad campaign admitting they lied
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department wants the largest cigarette manufacturers to admit that they lied to the public about the dangers of smoking, forcing the industry to set up and pay for an advertising campaign of self-criticism for past behavior.
As part of a 12-year-old lawsuit against the tobacco industry, the government on Wednesday released 14 "corrective statements" that it says the companies should be required to make.
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Alcohol kills more than AIDS, TB or violence
GENEVA — Alcohol causes nearly 4 percent of deaths worldwide, more than AIDS, tuberculosis or violence, the World Health Organization warned on Friday.
Rising incomes have triggered more drinking in heavily populated countries in Africa and Asia, including India and South Africa, and binge drinking is a problem in many developed countries, the United Nations agency said.
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NFL Players: Injury, Pain, and Opioid Misuse
A new study performed by researchers at the Washington University in St. Louis has found that players retired from the National Football League (NFL) are far more likely than the general population to use and misuse opioid painkillers, the L.A. Times reported Jan. 28.
The research, commissioned by ESPN with funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), is the first of its kind
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Study in managed care journal backs cost-effectiveness of alcohol medications
The makers of Vivitrol, the once-monthly injectable form of the medication naltrexone to treat alcohol dependence, believe results of a newly published study will take the addiction field’s acceptance of their product to a new level. Published in the December 2010 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care, the research appears to offer the best argument to date that using Vivitrol as part of alcohol dependence treatment can prove cost-effective.
"This is the number one journal in the field of managed care, and that’s medical managed care, not specialty," says David Gastfriend, MD, vice president of medical affairs at Alkermes, Inc. and a co-author of the study. “It is unusual to get prominence for an addiction story in that journal.”
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Family History of Alcoholism Ups Obesity Risk
A family history of alcoholism could make people more likely to overindulge on junk food, Reuters reported Dec. 31.
To assess whether familial alcohol dependence was linked to obesity, Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) researchers compared national survey data on obesity and addiction from 1991-1992 with data from 2001-2002. Roughly 80,000 U.S. adults completed the surveys.
Based on the 2001-2002 data, women who reported having an alcoholic parent or sibling had a 49% higher risk of obesity than women with no family history of alcoholism -- a much higher association than that shown in 1991-1992.
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Study Suggests Spirituality is Key to AA
According to new research, spirituality may be a key part of what makes Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) effective, HealthDay reported Dec. 14.
Investigators tracked 1,726 adults through their recovery from alcohol dependence for 15 months. According to the study abstract, attending AA meetings resulted in "increases in spiritual practices," and spirituality played a part in reduced use of alcohol.
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WHO: Secondhand Smoke Kills 600,000 a Year
In the first such global study of its kind, the World Health Organization (WHO) has determined that one out of a hundred deaths each year worldwide is caused by secondhand smoke exposure, amounting to about 600,000 deaths a year, Reuters reported Nov. 26.
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Data Show Benefits of Treatment Far Outweight Costs
As the U.S. economy faces unsustainable escalations in health care costs, we need to ensure that needed substance use disorder treatment and recovery programs help reduce both health care expenditures and societal costs. While relieving enormous physical and psychological burdens, treatment can also diminish the huge financial consequences that substance abuse imposes on employers and taxpayers.
The publication Cost Offset of Treatment Services presents facts showing that accessible and effective community-based alcohol and drug treatment is essential to reducing a society's financial burden from problems associated with drug use.
The Stress of Addiction
It is safe to say that everyone encounters stress on a regular basis: infants, children, adults, seniors, and especially those that are dealing with illness. Because addiction is defined as a chronic and progressive disease, it follows that someone afflicted with the disease is also under stress: in actuality an addict is most likely under severe stress.
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Alcohol Ranked Most Harmful Drug
A group of British scientific experts has concluded that when combining its effects on the individual and on society, alcohol far outpaces other substances as the most harmful drug, the Associated Press reported Nov. 1.
The Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs, meeting via an interactive workshop, used multicriteria decision analysis to evaluate drugs' effects on the body and their impacts on society, including effects on families and on costs in areas such as health care and corrections. Heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine were ranked in the analysis as the most lethal drugs to the individual, but alcohol, heroin and crack were judged most harmful to others.
The combined harm score for alcohol was the highest, at 72 out of a possible 100, followed by heroin (55) and crack (54).
The authors explained that the rankings, based on 16 criteria, do not correspond to how drugs are currently classified in the United Kingdom. For example, last year the British government increased penalties for possession of marijuana, a drug that ranked far below alcohol and other illegal drugs in the experts’ assessment of overall harm.
“What governments decide is illegal is not always based on science,” said Wim van den Brink, professor of psychiatry and addiction at the University of Amsterdam.
Yet study co-author Leslie King, an adviser to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs, urged against interpreting the results as a call for alcohol prohibition. “Alcohol is too embedded in our culture and it won’t go away,” King said.
The findings were published online Nov. 1 in The Lancet.
Holding their liquor makes women much sicker than men
Some women may be able to hold their liquor as well as men do, but there's no equality when it comes to whose health suffers more for it. Excessive alcohol use takes a higher toll on women's bodies, with a greater risk of liver, brain or heart damage, among other devastating conditions.
"We are very concerned about the fact that more young women are starting to drink in harmful ways, including binge drinking," said Dr. Deidra Roach of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
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Vanguard and Phoenix House to Join Forces, Broaden Reach of Addiction Treatment
Arlington, VA (November 4, 2010) With more Americans turning to alcohol and drugs in the wake of the economic recession, Vanguard Services Unlimited and Phoenix House Foundation today announced plans to combine and broaden the reach and scope of their services. As of November 1, Vanguard is known as Phoenix Houses of the Mid-Atlantic.
“This is an exciting time for Vanguard and a hopeful time for Americans battling addiction,” said Debby Taylor, President and CEO of Vanguard. “With Phoenix House, we will be able to provide more services to more people and aid them on the road to recovery.”
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WASHINGTON — At the height of the Iraq war, the Army routinely fired hundreds of soldiers for having a personality disorder when they were more likely suffering from the traumatic stresses of war, discharge data suggests.
Under pressure from Congress and the public, the Army later acknowledged the problem and drastically cut the number of soldiers given the designation. But advocates for veterans say an unknown number of troops still unfairly bear the stigma of a personality disorder, making them ineligible for military health care and other benefits.
"We really have an obligation to go back and make sure troops weren't misdiagnosed," said Dr. Barbara Van Dahlen, a clinical psychologist whose nonprofit "Give an Hour" connects troops with volunteer mental health professionals.
Click here to view the entire story, "Hundreds of PTSD soldiers likely misdiagnosed." (Courtesy of MSNBC.com.)
Almost half of Americans aged 12 or older reported being current drinkers of alcohol in the 2001 survey (48.3 percent). This translates to an estimated 109 million people. Both the rate of alcohol use and the number of drinkers increased from 2000, when 104 million, or 46.6 percent, of people aged 12 or older reported drinking in the past 30 days.
Among youths aged 12 to 17, an estimated 17.3 percent used alcohol in the month prior to the survey interview. This rate was higher than the rate of youth alcohol use reported in 2000 (16.4 percent). Of all youths, 10.6 percent were binge drinkers, and 2.5 percent were heavy drinkers. These are roughly the same percentages as those reported in 2000 (10.4 and 2.6 percent, respectively).
Click here for more facts about alcohol from the US Department of Health and Human Services