This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Frequent heroin use among high school seniors tied to depressants
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
High school seniors who used heroin were more likely to use other drugs, and heroin use increased in frequency when they also used other opioids and benzodiazepines recreationally, according to recently published research in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
“The demographic of heroin users has changed in recent years, and pediatricians should not just assume that a particular patient isn’t the type to use a drug such as heroin,” Joseph J. Palamar, MPH, PhD, associate professor in the department of population health at New York University Langone Medical Center, told Infectious Diseases in Children. “Many other drugs are commonly used before heroin is initiated, so it is important to detect and address problematic drug use early.”
Palamar and colleagues used the Monitoring the Future cross-sectional study of high school seniors surveyed from approximately 130 public and private schools in 48 states. Their analysis focused on cohorts from 2010-2016 to determine the main outcome of past-month heroin use. The researchers measured how past-month use and the frequency of use of various drugs were related to current heroin use.
From a full sample of 92,242 students, there were 327 (0.4%) current heroin users included in the analysis. The researchers noted that there was a decrease in current heroin use among high school seniors, from 0.4% in 2010 to 0.2% in 2016.
“Prevalence of any past-month use of various other drugs (and past-month use 10 or more times) tends to increase as the frequency of heroin use increases; however, other drug use tends to decline among those reporting the use of heroin 40 or more times in the past month,” the researchers wrote.
The largest proportion of current heroin users were white (51.5%), from two-parent households (42.1%) and had parents with college degrees (43.7%). However, when compared with the full sample of students, current heroin use was more likely to be reported by older students, males, blacks and students residing with a single parent and parents with a lower level of education.
On average, students reported using 5.24 drugs other than heroin in the past month. When the researchers controlled for demographics, most alcohol use had an association of decreased odds of higher frequency of heroin use when compared with no alcohol use (P < .05). The odds of higher frequency heroin use increased in association with the use of nonmedical opioids (adjusted OR = 5.84) and tranquilizers (aOR = 14.63) 40 or more times in the past month.
“We found that as heroin use increases, so too does use of benzodiezapines such as Xanax [alprazolam, Pfizer],” Palamar said. “This is alarming because combining these drugs increases chances of overdose. While drugs like Xanax are relatively safe when taken on their own, users are at risk when co-using drugs like heroin or alcohol.”
“While nonmedical opioid use is a leading risk factor for heroin initiation, we must keep in mind that most heroin users also use many other drugs,” Palamar added. “Pediatricians should keep an eye open for nonmedical opioid use among their teenage patients, especially if they use other drugs.” – by Bruce Thiel
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts