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Most Parents Unaware of Teens’ Use of Study Drugs
Yet a new University of Michigan poll shows only one in 100 parents of teens 13 to 17 years old believes that their teen has used a study drug.
Study drugs often include stimulant medications prescribed for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Common drugs abused for this purpose include Adderall, Concerta, Ritalin, and Vyvanse.
Researchers discovered that among parents of teens who have not been prescribed a stimulant medication for ADHD, only 1 percent believes their teen has used a study drug to help study or improve grades.
The finding stems from the latest University of Michigan Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health.
However, recent national data from the Monitoring the Future survey indicates that 10 percent of high school sophomores and 12 percent of high school seniors say they have used an amphetamine or other stimulant medication not prescribed by their doctor.
Experts say that students without ADHD will take someone else’s medication, to try to stay awake and alert and try to improve their scores on exams or assignments.
However, taking study drugs has not been proven to improve students’ grades, and it can be very dangerous to their health, says Matthew M. Davis, M.D., M.A.P.P., director of the Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health.
“Taking these medications when they are not prescribed for you can lead to acute exhaustion, abnormal heart rhythms and even confusion and psychosis if the teens get addicted and go into withdrawal,” said Davis.
“What we found in this poll is a clear mismatch between what parents believe and what their kids are reporting. But even though parents may not be recognizing these behaviors in their own kids, this poll also showed that one-half of the parents say they are very concerned about this abuse in their communities,” he said.
White parents were most likely to say they are “very concerned” (54 percent), compared with black (38 percent) and Hispanic/Latino (37 percent) parents.
Despite this concern, only 27 percent of parents polled said they have talked to their teens about using study drugs. Black parents were more likely to have discussed this issue with their teens (41 percent), compared with white (27 percent) or Hispanic (17 percent) parents.
“If we are going to make a dent in this problem, and truly reduce the abuse of these drugs, we need parents, educators, health care professionals and all who interact with teens to be more proactive about discussing the issue,” Davis said.
More than three-quarters of parents polled said they support school policies aimed at stopping abuse of study drugs in middle schools and high schools. Overall, 76 percent of parents said they believe schools should be required to discuss the dangers of ADHD medication abuse.
Moreover, 79 percent of parents support a policy to require students with a prescription for ADHD medications to keep their pills in a secure location such as the school nurse’s office.
This requirement could prohibit students from carrying such drugs which could potentially be shared with, or sold to, other students.
“We know teens may be sharing drugs or spreading the word that these medications can give their grades a boost,” Davis said.
“But the bottom line is that these prescription medications are drugs, and teens who use them without a prescription are taking a serious risk with their health.”
Sourc: University of Michigan
Teenager holding pills in his hand photo by shutterstock.
Abuse of Anabolic Steroids Tied to Mental Health Problems
This is the main conclusion of a new University of Gothenburg study recently published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The study included almost 700 former Swedish wrestlers, weightlifters, powerlifters and throwers who competed at the elite level sometime between 1960 and 1979.
Twenty per cent of them admitted using steroids during their active careers. The purpose of the study was to look for links between AAS use and mental problems.
“We found a clear link. AAS users were more likely to have been treated for depression, concentration problems and aggressive behavior,” said researcher and psychologist Dr. Claudia Fahlke.
Investigators also found that AAS users were more likely to have abused other illicit drugs and alcohol.
Still, it remains unclear whether the steroid use actually caused the mental health problems or the mental health problems rather caused the steroid use.
‘What we were able to show, though, is that psychiatric symptoms and use of steroids and other drugs tend to reinforce each other in a vicious cycle,” Fahlke said.
“This suggests that the anti-doping efforts remain very important, both in and outside of sports.”
Source: University of Gothenburg
Hand holding a syringe photo by shutterstock.
Practice May Not Make Perfect, But It Helps
In the study, Michigan State University psychologist Dr. Zach Hambrick discovered a copious amount of practice is not enough to explain why people differ in level of skill in two widely studied activities: chess and music.
Hambrick believes the findings confirm that it takes more than hard work to become an expert. That is, natural talent and other factors likely play a role in mastering a complicated activity.
The article has been published in the research journal Intelligence.
“Practice is indeed important to reach an elite level of performance, but this paper makes an overwhelming case that it isn’t enough,” said Hambrick, associate professor of psychology.
The debate over why and how people become experts has gone on for more than a century. Many theorists argue that thousands of hours of focused, deliberate practice is sufficient to achieve elite status, but emerging evidence points to innate talent as a contributing factor.
“Some people do reach an elite level of performance without copious practice, while other people fail to do so despite copious practice,” finds Hamrick.
Hambrick and colleagues analyzed 14 studies of chess players and musicians, looking specifically at how practice was related to differences in performance.
Practice, they found, accounted for only about one-third of the differences in skill in both music and chess.
The remaining two-thirds may be a result of intelligence or innate ability, and the age at which people start the particular activity, Hambrick said.
A previous study also suggested that working memory capacity — which is closely related to general intelligence — may sometimes be the deciding factor between being good and great.
While the conclusion that practice may not make perfect runs counter to the popular view that just about anyone can achieve greatness if they work hard enough, Hambrick said there is a “silver lining” to the research.
“If people are given an accurate assessment of their abilities and the likelihood of achieving certain goals given those abilities,” he said, “they may gravitate toward domains in which they have a realistic chance of becoming an expert through deliberate practice.”
Source: Michigan State University
Child taking music lessons photo by shutterstock.
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