Non-Medical Use of Prescription Stimulants Reported by Adults Entering Substance Abuse Treatment

This poster was presented at the 31st annual Psych Congress, held Oct. 25-28, 2018, in Orlando, Florida.

Prescription stimulants prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have been recently highlighted by regulatory agencies and others as emerging drugs of misuse/abuse. Non-medical use (NMU; use in any way other than prescribed, including misuse/abuse) of these products was characterized using the Addiction Severity Index Multimedia Version (ASI-MV®) which gathers self-reports of substance use history from adults seeking substance abuse treatment. During the study period (01 January 2010 through 30 September 2017), 48 states contributed a total of 513,080 assessments to ASI-MV. Of these, 9,186 individuals (1.8%) indicated past 30-day NMU of a prescription stimulant product. The NMU subset consisted of 44% age 25 to 34 years and 27% age 18 to 24 years. Over half of the respondents were male (51%) and never married (59%) with the majority Caucasian (85%). The most reported occupation was skilled or semi-skilled labor (33%). Approximately 49% reported receiving treatment at a residential/inpatient treatment facility and 27% reported their treatment admission was prompted by the criminal justice system. While NMU of prescription stimulants via the oral route was the most commonly reported, 38% reported snorting and 4% reported injecting. A substantial proportion of NMU patients reported injection of other drugs as well (44%), including prescription opioids (29%).These data suggest that NMU of prescription stimulants in adults seeking substance abuse treatment is of concern, particularly considering the substantial proportion that report use via non-oral routes. Awareness of this increased risk is important for both prescribers of these important medications as well as addiction specialists.