Intervention Agencies Speak Out On Pharma Parties, ADHD Drug Abuse

By John Voket

Representatives from both the Newtown Parent Connection and Newtown Youth & Family Services cited a growing concern over so-called “pharma parties” in the community, as places where teens and even adolescents might acquire or begin experimenting with attention deficit drugs, as well as stronger prescription painkillers and opiates.

Both Dorrie Carolan of the Parent Connection and Beth Agen, executive director of NYFS, said they are hearing more about increasing incidents where a group of youths will raid medicine cabinets in their own homes, or in homes of friends or relatives they are visiting.

Ms Carolan said according to what she is hearing, the youths will then converge on a location — typically a home where there is little or no direct adult supervision — dump all the drugs into a bowl, and pick out and take the pills at random, to discover what kind of high they can experience.

Ms Agen said she is hearing anecdotally that “...friends of friends talk about the easy access to prescription drugs, and how kids are taking them at these parties without even knowing what the effects or side effects can be.

“It’s particularly dangerous when you are considering how they go to and from these parties, because many of these pills induce drowsiness,” she said. “And then they leave these parties, often in groups, and get in a car with friends who are driving after experimenting with these drugs.”

One of the latest reports on teen drug use specifically points to intensely escalating incidences of attention deficit drug use. Nationally, calls to poison control centers about teens abusing attention deficit drugs soared 76 percent over eight years, sobering evidence about the dangerous consequences of prescription misuse, a study shows.

The calls were from worried parents, emergency room doctors, and others seeking advice on how to deal with the problem, which can be deadly. Four deaths were among cases evaluated in the study.

Young people taking ADHD drugs to get high or increase alertness may not realize that misuse of the drugs can cause serious, sometimes life-threatening, symptoms, including agitation, rapid heartbeat, and extremely high blood pressure.

“They say, ‘It’s FDA approved, how dangerous could it be?’” said Steve Pasierb, head of The Partnership for a Drug-Free America, based in New York.

In the study, researchers from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center evaluated 1998–2005 data from the American Association of Poison Control Centers. During that time, nationwide calls related to teen abuse of ADHD drugs, specifically stimulants, increased from 330 to 581 yearly, and there were four deaths.

Overall, 42 percent of teens involved had moderate to severe side-effects and most ended up getting emergency room treatment.

The true number of teen abusers who have bad side effects is likely much higher, because many cases do not result in calls to poison control centers, said study author Dr Randall Bond, medical director of the hospital’s Drug and Poison Information Center.

The surge from 1998 to 2005 outpaced calls for teen substance abuse generally. It also paralleled an 86 percent rise in ADHD medicine prescriptions for kids aged 10 to 19, from about four million to nearly eight million during that time.

“It’s more bad news on an entrenched problem,” Mr Pasierb said. His nonprofit group was not involved in the study. Its own research suggests that about 19 percent of teens have abused prescription drugs, including medicine for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Government-sponsored surveys suggest that teen abuse of stimulants including ADHD drugs has declined in recent years. The new study was released in the August edition of Pediatrics.

Mark Stein, a psychiatry professor and ADHD expert at University of Illinois at Chicago, said abuse typically involves crushing and snorting the pills, which speeds up the effects and can produce a buzz or sense of euphoria — along with dangerous side effects.

Kids who develop serious side effects should be taken to the emergency room, where sedatives can be used to treat the problem, Mr Stein said.

The study lacks information on whether abusers were teens with ADHD, but anecdotal evidence suggests many are not.

Based on what Ms Agen sees in Newtown, she tends to agree.

“It’s very scary, especially since those abusing ADHD drugs are often scholastic or athletic overachievers who are snorting to keep ‘up’ longer; to study later or play harder,” Ms Agen said. “This is not the stereotypical picture of what you may perceive as drug-addicted youth.”

She said NYFS can help by referring those involved with attention deficit drug abuse to behavior modification programs.

“It’s different from alcohol or heroin because they don’t necessarily need to detox,” Ms Agen said. “We need to look at the lifestyles that are influencing this type of drug use.”

If they attend Newtown schools, Ms Agen urges students to drop in and talk to Martha Shilstone, LCSW, who works in the school district, “whether it’s about a friend or themselves.”

Ms Carolan said, in the case of the Parent Connection, her agency typically does not see these young people until they have graduated to high powered painkillers, heroin or other opiates. But she said if a youngster is looking to get high, and there is ADHD medication accessible to them, “this is what kids are taking.”

She said parents who suspect or discover any kind of drug or alcohol use can find a place to come and talk about suspected or confirmed substance abuse in a confidential setting with others who have been through it. The agency sponsors drop-in talks every Thursday from 7 to 9 pm.

For more information about Parent Connection programs, parents or caregivers are invited to call Ms Carolan at 270-1600.

“While we’re seeing a lot of relapsing, our support group meetings have been pretty packed,” she said. “The good news is: people are coming out to get educated and so far there have been no fatalities.”

Ms Agen said that parents should use this latest data as an opportunity to first talk to their children about prescription drug dangers, and then clean out their medicine cabinets.

“This report is indicative of a need for families to pay attention to what is in the medicine cab,” she said. “Drugs prescribed to heal can also hurt.”

Mr Stein said the recent study on the escalation of attention deficit medicine abuse should not deter use of ADHD drugs in teens who really need them, particularly since there’s evidence that kids with ADHD who do not get medication are at risk for abusing illicit drugs.