By EMS1 Staff
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — A recent study found that teens who suffer from any kind of mental health issue are more likely to become addicted to opioids if they are prescribed them.
Chicago Tribune reported that the chances that the teen will progress to long-term opioid use can double, or even triple, depending on what the teen is prescribed and diagnosed with, according to Indiana University researcher Patrick Quinn.
Quinn suggested that doctors screen for mental disorders before prescribing teens opioids for chronic pain, as they “might be already carrying some risk for [addiction] problems, even before they start taking opioids.”
The study analyzed the health records of more than 1.2 million teens who were given opioid prescriptions and looked at whether or not the teen was previously diagnosed with a mental disorder such as ADHD, sleep disorders or anxiety.
They found that three out of every 1,000 teenagers who were prescribed to opioids began taking them long-term, but the numbers for teens with mental disorders were higher:
- 7 out of 1,000 teens with schizophrenia.
- 8 out of 1,000 teens with anxiety disorders.
- 9 out of 1,000 teens with depression.
- 10 out of 1,000 teens with bipolar disorder.
- 11 out of 1,000 teens with a sleep disorder.
“We need to spend more time trying to figure things out as opposed to just jumping to a medication for patients who may not have needed that opioid agent,” Dr. Scott Krakower, chief of psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital, said. “If you’re writing [the prescription for] the opioid agent, maybe it’s a good idea for you to make sure you’re not missing other pieces that are going on with the case.”
Jamapediatrics Quinn 2018 Oi 170115 by Ed Praetorian on Scribd