Prescription Drug Abuse among College Students

Prescription Drug Abuse among College Students

Principal Investigator: Gilbert Quintero, Ph.D.
Start and End Dates: 04/01/04 to 03/31/07
Source of Funding: National Institute on Drug Abuse

New Mexico’s Prevention Research Center (PRC) recently received a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to move forward on an important component of the overall PRC research agenda. This new grant, “The Social Context of Collegiate Prescription Drug Abuse,” will expand Center capacities in tobacco, alcohol, and substance abuse prevention.

Inappropriate use of certain prescription drugs is increasingly becoming a public health concern. Traditionally college students have been at the forefront of trends in drug use, however, public health researchers currently have very little reliable data on the non-medical use of specific prescription drugs among this population. Accurate surveillance and epidemiological data are limited by lack of a detailed understanding of the situations in which college students misuse prescription drugs. There is also little known regarding the language college students use to describe drugs and drug use behavior.

Led by the Associate Director, Dr. Gilbert Quintero, a research team will conduct a three-year study of collegiate prescription drug abuse in two phases. First, researchers will interview 120 college students who have used prescription drugs for non-medical reasons within the last year. This phase of the study has three goals: (1) to explore the social and cultural factors related to prescription drug use, (2) to investigate attitudes, behaviors, and terms used by college students who use prescription drugs, and (3) to explore the risks and negative outcomes that college students associate with prescription drug use.

In phase two, findings from this in-depth exploration will then be used to develop a more accurate survey on collegiate prescription drug abuse than currently exists. This survey will then be given to a sample of 300 college students between the ages of 18 and 25 to gather further information about drug use patterns and associated health risks.

Ultimately, results from this in-depth study will lead to the creation of better tools for gathering epidemiological and surveillance information about collegiate drug abuse and provide a foundation for the development of more effective drug abuse prevention and intervention models.

For additional information, please contact Dr. Gilbert Quintero,
Gilbert.Quintero@mso.umt.edu .