Nonmedical Use of Prescription-Type Drugs among Youths and Young Adults

The NHSDA Report:  Nonmedical Use of Prescription-Type Drugs among Youths and Young Adults

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Highlights:

• In 2001, almost 3 million youths aged 12 to 17 and almost 7 million young adults aged 18 to 25 had used prescription-type drugs nonmedically at least once in their lifetime..

• Among persons aged 12 to 25, the rate of past year marijuana use was higher among those who had used prescription-type drugs nonmedically in the past year (63 percent) than those who did not (17 percent).

• SAMHSA's National Household Survey on Drug Abuse found that the initiation of nonmedical prescription-type drug use occurs primarily among personas age 12 to 25 and that new use has been increasing since the mid-1980s especially for pain relievers.

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This Short Report, The NHSDA Report:  Nonmedical Use of Prescription-Type Drugs among Youths and Young Adults, is based on SAMHSA's  National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA), now called the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH).  The NHSDA/NSDUH is conducted by the Office of Applied Studies (OAS) in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).  SAMHSA's National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) is the primary source of information on the prevalence, patterns, and consequences of drug and alcohol use and abuse in the general U.S. civilian non institutionalized population, age 12 and older.   The NHSDA/NSDUH also provides estimates for drug use by state.

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This page was last updated on March 17, 2008.

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