Stimulant misuse often starts during adolescence

Misuse of drugs is commonly ascribed to college students, but the misuse often begins much earlier. This is the result of a US data analysis that was published in “Drug and Alcohol Dependence”. The peak ages for starting are between 16 and 19.

Researchers at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) analysed data from national surveys of 240,000 teens and young adults (aged twelve to 21). They focused their analysis on those young people who misused prescription stimulants for the first time in the past year.

Surprisingly, the study revealed the same rate of first-time stimulant drug use among 20 to 21 year-olds and 13 to 14 year-olds. Starting stimulant misuse was highest at the age of 16 to 19 years. In 18 year-olds, this affected twice as many young women than men – young women were most likely to use diet pills.

“People have been thinking this is a college problem, but they just don’t realise how prevalent it is at younger ages”, said study author Elizabeth Austic “The earlier people begin misusing drugs of any kind, the more likely they are to develop drug dependence problems”, she warned. Moreover, young people are often not aware of the side effects. Austic recommended that in future, prevention programmes should start sooner than they do now – for example, in middle school. “To prevent someone from using stimulants for the first time is often more cost efficient and effective than trying to intervene once they have done it, whether a few times or for years”, Austic emphasised.