(Reuters Health) – Teens who use prescription drugs for nonmedical reasons are more likely than other youth to be victims of dating violence, a U.S. study suggests.
The researchers examined data on 5,136 boys and 5,307 girls who were dating during high school. Overall, roughly one in five of these teens said they had used prescription drugs without a doctor’s prescription at least once.
Compared to boys who never misused prescription medicines, boys who did were 65% more likely to be victims of both physical and sexual dating violence, the study found. Girls who misused prescription drugs were 43% more likely to be victims of both sexual and physical dating violence.
“Dating violence can be prevented – by teaching skills for healthy relationships now, we create safer, healthier relationships for everyone in the future,” said lead study author Heather Clayton, a researcher at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
This includes teaching teens about how drug use can impact their relationships, Clayton added by email.
“Our data underscore the importance of considering ways to address substance use, including nonmedical use of prescription drugs, as part of preventive interventions for teenaged dating violence,” she said.
Most of the teens in the study identified as heterosexual, with about 4% identifying as gay, lesbian or bisexual and 2% saying they were unsure about their sexual identity, researchers report online November 20 in Pediatrics.
Overall, about 90% of the teens said they had not been victims of dating violence in the past year.
About 4% of the youth reported being victims of physical dating violence only, around 2% said they had been victims of sexual dating violence only, and 3% said they had experienced both types of dating violence.
Boys who misused prescription drugs were 61% more likely to experience sexual dating violence than boys who didn’t, the study found.
Girls who misused prescription drugs were 42% more likely to experience physical dating violence than girls who didn’t, the study also found.
The link between drug misuse and dating violence was strongest for teens who experienced the most episodes of physical or sexual violence and weaker for youth who reported experiencing dating violence just once.
One limitation of the study is that it relied on teens to accurately recall and report on their dating experiences and exposure to violence, the authors note. It also wasn’t possible to determine whether any drug misuse came before or after any exposure to dating violence.
“Teens who are misusing prescription drugs may do riskier things that they might not do otherwise to get more of the drugs,” said Dr. Elizabeth Miller, director of adolescent and young adult medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
“This increases the chances of being in relationships with people who can try to control or take advantage of them,” said Miller, who wasn’t involved in the study but wrote a commentary on it in the same issue of the journal.
“It may also be that teens who are in abusive relationships are finding ways to cope with the stress and pain of being hurt, and using drugs as a way to feel better,” Miller added in an email.
SOURCES: http://bit.ly/2z9SNnu and http://bit.ly/2jbmNIX
Pediatrics 2017.
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