A study released Thursday says about 3.1 million people between the ages of 12 and 25 -- about 5 percent of the age group -- have used
over-the-counter cough and cold medicine to get high.
If kids take enough of the stuff, feds say, cough syrup and cold tablets can cause
hallucinations or "out-of-body" experiences.
The 2006 survey was conducted by the
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
A story from Reuters says:
"The survey tells me that parents need to be very concerned
about the over-the-counter medicines that they have in their
medicine cabinet," Dr. H. Westley Clark, director of SAMHSA's
Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, said in a telephone
interview.
"And young adults need to be concerned about the effects
that over-the-counter cold medications and cough medications
have on their functioning."
Adolescents and young adults are thought to have the
highest rates of abuse of such medications, the officials said.
Nearly 1 million -- or 1.7 percent of them -- had done so in
the past year, according to the survey.
The abuse was highest among whites -- at levels three times
that of blacks. Overall, the level of abuse of these drugs is
comparable to levels of use of LSD, methamphetamine or the drug
ecstasy in this age group, the agency said. Among those ages 12
to 17, abuse of these drugs was most common among girls, while
it shifted to young men among those 18 to 25.
According to Reuters, the study found:
Among those surveyed who said they had misused one of these
cough and cold medications in the past year, about 30 percent
said they used a NyQuil brand product, 18 percent used a
Coricidin product and 18 percent used a Robitussin product.
The cough suppressant dextromethorphan, or DXM, is used in
more than 140 cough and cold products available without a
prescription in the United States and is considered generally
safe at recommended doses.
KidsHeath has some history:
Before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) replaced the
narcotic codeine with dextromethorphan as an over-the-counter (OTC)
cough suppressant in the 1970s, teens were simply guzzling down cough
syrup for a quick buzz.
Over the years, teens discovered that they still could get high by
taking large doses of any OTC medicine containing dextromethorphan
(also called DXM).
Dextromethorphan-containing products -- tablets, capsules, gel caps,
lozenges, and syrups -- are labeled DM, cough suppressant, or Tuss (or
contain "tuss" in the title).
