Peak ages of risk for starting nonmedical use of prescription stimulants

• Data are from the United States National Surveys on Drug Use and Health 2004–2012.
• A meta-analytic approach was used to identify ages of peak risk of initiation.
• Risk estimates for nonmedical stimulant use are age-, year-, and cohort-specific.
• Peak risk was concentrated between ages 16 and 19 years among young people.
• Females were more likely to have started nonmedical use of prescription stimulants.

BackgroundTo produce population-level, year- and age-specific risk estimates of first time nonmedical use of prescription stimulants among young people in the United States.MethodsData are from the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health 2004–2012; a nationally representative probability sample survey administered each year. Subpopulations included youths aged 12 to 21 years (n = 240,160) who had not used prescription stimulants nonmedically prior to their year of survey assessment. A meta-analytic approach was used to produce population-level age-, year-, and cohort-specific risk estimates of first time nonmedical use of prescription stimulants.ResultsPeak risk of starting nonmedical use of prescription stimulants was concentrated between ages 16 and 19 years, when an estimated 0.7% to 0.8% of young people reported nonmedical use of these medicines for the first time in the past twelve months. Smaller risk estimates ranging from 0.1% to 0.6% were observed at ages 12 to 15 years and 20 to 21 years. Compared with males, females were more likely to have started nonmedical use of prescription stimulants (odds ratio = 1.35; 95% CI, 1.13–1.62), particularly between the ages of 14 and 19. Females showed a peak annual incidence rate of 1% at age 18, while males the same age showed an incidence rate of 0.5%.ConclusionsPeak annual incidence rates for nonmedical use of prescription stimulants were observed between the ages of 16 and 19 years. There is reason to initiate interventions during the earlier adolescent years to prevent youths from starting nonmedical use of prescription stimulants.