The prospective association between illicit drug use and nonprescription opioid use among vulnerable adolescents.

ABSTRACT: In recent years, more than half of all drug overdose deaths in United States involved an opioid. To address this epidemic, antecedents to opioid misuse must be identified and empirically validated. The objective of the current investigation was to examine whether illicit drug use was prospectively associated with nonprescription opioid use among adolescents from a vulnerable population with a greater prevalence of substance abuse. A population-based cohort study of 1060 adolescents from 29 alternative high schools in southern California was conducted over a two-year period. A total of 929 adolescents (mean age 17.5 years, 49.9% female, 76.4% Hispanic) who had not experimented with nonprescription opioids at the baseline assessment were included in the analytic sample. The outcome was self-

SUBMITTER: Pike JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7856303 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature