Teenage Drug Abuse Statistics: Key Facts Every Parent Should Know

There is some suggestion that cognitive domains are differentially impacted by marijuana use in adolescence, with attention, declarative memory, and cognitive control particularly affected (Randolph et al., 2013). Gender specific effects have also been found, with heavy-drinking girls showing worsening performance on tests of visuospatial functioning compared to non-using girls, and alcohol-using boys showing poorer attention compared to alcohol-naïve boys (Squeglia et al., 2009). Dopaminergic systems are significantly reorganized in the adolescent brain, with decreases in dopamine in striatal structures such as the nucleus accumbens, in the context of limited inhibitory control, potentially precipitating high-risk behaviors to compensate for dopaminergic void (Chambers et al., 2003; Spear, 2002). Adolescents are known to be particularly vulnerable, compared to children and adults, to initiation of substance use and progression to problematic use. Healthy brain development throughout adolescence is imperative, with even minor changes in neurodevelopmental trajectories affecting a range of cognitive, emotional, and social functioning (Nagy et al., 2004; Casey et al., 2008).

Substance Misuse and Mental Health

Teen drug abuse remains a pressing concern for parents and communities. Our state-specific resource guides offer a comprehensive overview of drug and alcohol addiction treatment options available in your area. If your child needs help, a professional will go over substance abuse treatment options with you and your child. Give your teen the best chance they have to overcome drug abuse problems. Doctors and treatment specialists have spent decades working on and perfecting their methodologies, and they can help teens struggling with addiction defeat their illness. Treatment centers offermedical detoxas well as drug and alcohol addiction treatment.

Effects of Teen Drug Use

Such marijuana use can result in perceiving drugs as not harmful, having long-term problems with cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana, and having friends who exhibit deviant behavior. If there are concerns regarding substance use, parents may need to conduct searches in their teens’ personal spaces, including digital devices. They provide free self-screening quizzes for individuals aged 13-18, 18-30, and 30+, allowing individuals and their families to assess the possibility of mental health or substance use disorders.

This is known as self-medicating, and it can lead to teen drug abuse. There are occasions that stresses and life events cause depression and contribute to teen drug abuse. Sometimes teen drug abuse is not the main cause of teen depression leading to teenage suicide. In order to forestall teen suicide stemming from teen drug abuse, it is important to recognize the symptoms of teen drug abuse. Added to that, however, are the withdrawal symptoms that come with teen drug abuse. It is important to understand that teen drug abuse can contribute to attempted suicide and to completed suicide.

Substance Use Disorder (SUD) prevalence and the impact of historical policies can shed light on the nuances of drug use trends among different racial groups. It can hinder their educational and career prospects, strain relationships with family and friends, and contribute to a cycle of addiction and dependency. In fact, less than 6% of 12th-grade students use marijuana every day, indicating a decline in use . The increasing acceptance and legalization of marijuana in various states may contribute to these rising usage rates. This can potentially increase their susceptibility to substance use as there is less parental oversight and understanding of their behaviors.

Understanding the Need for Teen Drug Prevention Programs

The CRAFFT and ASSIST serve as adolescent-validated analogues to the adult screener CAGE, the latter of which is not developmentally appropriate for adolescents (Gryczynski et al., 2015; Knight et al., 1999). These assessments can help determine the level and modality of treatment that may be Drug Abuse Treatment needed, spanning from psychoeducation and/or brief intervention in the primary care office to more intensive service referrals. Initial screeners such as the S2BI and BSTAD can be complemented with subsequent brief assessments to evaluate level of substance involvement and severity of substance-related problems. This must be balanced with the need for time efficiency amid busy clinical practice in which a wide variety of health screening assessments are indicated.

Coping mechanisms like mindfulness, meditation, and journaling can support emotional well-being. Teens should engage in healthy activities such as sports, hobbies, or volunteering. Creating a supportive environment is vital for long-term sobriety.

• A significant correlation has been identified between trauma and substance use among teenagers.
• Women have more barriers to treatment, including lack of childcare, prior trauma, fear of legal repercussions, and being prescribed medications that have been extensively tested on males only.(3, 22) Pregnancy can have a significant impact on addiction and how it is treated, requiring specialized care to ensure both the health of the mother and the unborn baby.(22, 23)
• Teenagers with suspected substance use problems say they turn to drugs because of a crushing need to relax and escape worries, according to research published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• A significant number of teenagers engage in drug abuse, highlighting the urgency of addressing this issue.
• Understanding the magnitude and nature of teenage substance abuse is the first step towards tackling this public health concern.
• SAMHSA’s vision for youth behavioral health is that all children, youth, and their families thrive in their homes and communities.

Types of Treatment Programs

Risks can increase based on the drug of abuse, if other drugs are involved, and how long the abuse has been taking place. Teen alcohol abuse can be treated the same as any substance use disorder. Prescription medicationsare quickly taking a bigger piece of the pie when it everything you need to know about whippets and how to stay safe comes to drug abuse. Teens abuse the same drugs that adults do. While teen drug use is difficult to predict,research helps us identifythe underlying causes of teen drug use. Finding paraphernalia is one of the warning signs of teen drug use.

Recovery.com uses a standard procedure to make sure treatment provider profiles on our site are current and complete. We list any treatment center that meets our rehab criteria, giving you the best list of options possible when looking for treatment. Our advisory council brings together leaders in behavioral health, technology, and business. Our mission is to help everyone find the best path to recovery through the most comprehensive, helpful network of treatment providers worldwide. Such programs should also include help for teen depression and suicide prevention measures. There are a variety of treatment options, including in and out patient treatments.

• For a deeper understanding of these risk factors, visit our guide on signs of drug use in teenagers.
• Teens may not seek drugs out but are instead introduced to substances by someone they know, such as a friend, teammate, or even a family member.
• Building a supportive network can enhance a family’s ability to address issues together.
• Applied to adolescent substance use, this has been implemented across a number of modalities and settings, with the goal of reducing modifiable risk factors and enhancing/reinforcing modifiable protective factors (Harrop & Catalano, 2016).
• Substantial evidence supports combined treatment approaches, incorporating elements from the aforementioned modalities and others to enhance outcomes.
• In this case, it may be time to consider professional treatment.
• A study showed that 60% of teens in a community-based substance use treatment program were also diagnosed with a mental health disorder.

Most of the teens who had SUDs at 18 still had at least 2 symptoms of SUDs when middle aged.20 The exact reasons why SUDs carry over are not well-defined and are under review for continued research.20 If substance use progresses to a SUD as a teen, there is a high possibility that a lifetime SUD could develop. It has long-term consequences on a growing teenager’s brain and body development, puts them at higher risk for dangerous what is tusi drug made of behaviors, and compromises their futures. To heal, your teen may need to leave the environment and relationships that started and perpetuated their substance use, but to get there as willingly as possible, you must first prepare to have a discussion with them. Ultimately, finding a rehab program for your teen and getting them to the right treatment center are crucial elements of treatment and recovery.

Here are some of the key statistics from the Monitoring the Future survey, which has been tracking youth substance use in the United States for over 40 years. Public health experts track the rates of substance use in people of all ages. In some cases, there are other factors in developing addiction, such as genetics, environment, and peer pressure.

Prevention Programs

Schools play a significant role in the lives of teens by giving them a space to foster connections with peers and providing them with skills for long-term success in adulthood. However, the overdose rates among teens nearly doubled after 2020 and remained elevated into 2022. Discover practical prevention strategies for parents, schools, and communities, along with effective treatment options for those struggling. The Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), Youth Programs are cutting-edge, evidence-based substance use initiatives with a family-focused model of care that is responsive to the needs of youth, young adults, and their families. While this is not different from adults, youth are more vulnerable to substance use disorders because their brains are still developing. SAMHSA’s vision for youth behavioral health is that all children, youth, and their families thrive in their homes and communities.

Other research suggests that externalizing, but not internalizing, mental health problems in childhood predict later substance use in males and females, while among females adolescent substance use predicts internalizing disorders in adulthood (Miettunen et al., 2014). In a longitudinal study of marijuana and alcohol-using youth, substance use was related to worsening performance on several cognitive domains when compared to non-using youth, including worse performance on tests of complex attention, memory, processing speed, and visuospatial functioning, with early use (before age 16) relating to worse performance (Jacobus et al., 2015). Several neurocognitive features have been identified as risk factors for initiation of alcohol and other drug use during adolescence (Squeglia & Gray, 2016; Squeglia & Cservenka, 2017). Several large-scale, multisite longitudinal studies are currently underway to help further understand the consequences of alcohol and marijuana use on cognitive functioning, as well as determine the effects of tobacco and other less frequently used drugs on adolescent brain development. Because alcohol and marijuana are the two most commonly used substances, most existing research has focused on these substances. Encourages teens to seek emotional support from other adults, school counselors, and youth support groups such as Alateen, and provides a resource list.

Teen drug abuse can have a major impact on your child’s life. Moreover, the majority of adults who have a substance use disorder started using substances during their teen and young adult years. These teens may also drop old friends and activities, skip school, lose interest in school, receive low grades, sleep in class, lose concentration, and have trouble with memory. Substance abuse among youth has also been strongly linked to delinquency. Chronic injection drug users also risk scarred or collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and liver and kidney disease.

Other medications have been studied at least preliminarily for youth alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, and opioid use disorders, yielding mixed results (Hammond & Gray, 2016). In general, evaluated treatments in large-scale trials have demonstrated short-term substance reduction and/or cessation, but adolescents with substance use disorders, even with the best evidence-based care, rarely achieve long-term abstinence (Dennis et al., 2004; Hogue et al., 2014; Waldron & Turner, 2008). Outcomes are further enhanced by complementing the aforementioned treatments with contingency management (CM), a behavioral treatment based on operant conditioning principles, in which tangible rewards are provided for objectively confirmed desired behaviors (e.g., token provided for negative urine drug test) (Stanger et al., 2015, 2016).

Findings suggest there are a number of genes, each with relatively small effects, that interact with each other and with the environment (Enoch, 2012) to make an individual more or less susceptible to having a substance use disorder (Meyers & Dick, 2010). A recent meta-analysis of twin and adoption studies found that alcohol use disorder is approximately 50% heritable (Verhulst, Neale, & Kendler, 2015); however, identifying specific genes has been challenging, highlighting the complexity and heterogeneity of the disorder (Hart & Kranzler, 2015; Tawa, Hall, & Lohoff, 2016). Vulnerability for developing substance-related problems is especially heightened among individuals with a family history of substance use disorder (Cservenka, 2016). The follow-up assessment periods for these studies differed, with the Meier study ending at age 38 and the Jackson study following youth until age ~20; regular use over a prolonged period may result in more deleterious effects.

Share facts about drug abuse, including health risks and legal implications. Prevention strategies can effectively shield teens from drug abuse. Awareness of these factors can help parents and guardians provide the necessary support and guidance for their teens. Understanding why teens use drugs involves exploring underlying psychological factors.

By leveraging local resources, schools can create a comprehensive support system that addresses the multifaceted nature of drug abuse. Implementing these measures actively engages teens and reduces their likelihood of abusing drugs. Some teens may turn to drugs as a coping mechanism, mistakenly believing it offers relief from emotional pain.

Dr. Leslie Walker-Harding, chief academic officer and senior vice president at Seattle Children’s Hospital, said that 75% of young people with a substance use disorder also have a mental health condition. It includes self-assessments from 15,963 teenagers, ages 13 to 18, who answered questions online about their motivations for drug and alcohol use from 2014 through 2022. Novel screening and assessment instruments have been developed to efficiently identify youth with particular risk for serious substance-related problems, and a number of evidence-based treatment approaches have been shown to be effective in reducing substance use and substance-related problems. A meta-analysis revealed a small positive effect size for text messaging interventions for youth with substance use problems (Mason et al., 2015), and a pilot study demonstrated the feasibility of using smartphones to provide recovery support for adolescents after discharge from residential treatment (Dennis et al., 2015). Home drug testing kits are widely available, but often lack informational guidance to inform parents/guardians of empirically supported strategies to incorporate them as a part of treatment and monitoring, indicating that clear guidance by the provider is critical when considering drug testing at home rather than in clinic (Washio et al., 2014).