Prescription drug abuse is a public health problem of epidemic proportions in the United States. Provider-patient communication underpins many initiatives aimed at preventing and reducing the public health burden of prescription drug abuse. The characteristics of and factors contributing to this interpersonal process, however, have not been fully explored. The purpose of this research was to examine: 1) the overall problem of prescription drug abuse and provider-patient communication about prescription drug abuse from the patient perspective; and 2) provider-patient communication about prescription drug abuse from the prescriber perspective. In 2014-2015, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 patients from primary care and addiction medicine and 10 prescribers from multiple health professions and medical fields in Central and South Central Appalachia. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis, facilitated by qualitative data analysis software, was used to generate themes. Patients perceived prescription drug abuse as a problem, both in terms of its prevalence and contribution to negative consequences. Patients connected abuse to accessibility, identifying routes of access, routine practices, and rationales involved in the acquisition and distribution of prescription drugs for abuse. With regard to provider-patient communication, patients reported different levels of engagement in prescription drug abuse-related communication with healthcare providers—active, passive, and no/limited. Prescribers likewise reported different patterns of prescription drug abuse-related communication with patients—informative, counteractive, and supportive. Collectively, patients and prescribers described a range of factors—personal and environmental—that positively and negatively influence provider-patient communication and, by association, prescriber delivery and patient receipt of healthcare related to prescription drug abuse. When comparing the perspectives of patients and prescribers, multiple similarities in their prescription drug abuse-related communication perceptions and behaviors were identified. The findings of this research have implications for: 1) clinical practice to mitigate prescription drug abuse and improve patient prescription drug abuse-related communication behaviors; 2) patient- and prescriber-targeted interventions to improve provider-patient communication about prescription drug abuse; and 3) future research to continue to advance understanding of provider-patient communication about prescription drug abuse.

No description available.

No description available.

Increasing understanding of the risk and protective factors for adolescent nonmedical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD) could inform prevention efforts. Several correlates have been identified, including parental factors, perceptions about use and accessibility, social norms, and age. However, these constructs have rarely been simultaneously examined using paired data from parents and adolescents. We aimed to examine the relative influence of these correlates among dyads (N = 349) of mothers and adolescent daughters. Using multiple logistic regression, daughters’ past NMUPD and inclination for future NMUPD were regressed onto descriptive norms for friend use, perceived drug accessibility and risk of harm from use, daughter age, mothers’ disapproval about use, mothers’ past NMUPD and inclination for future NMUPD, and the mother-daughter relationship quality. Akaike weights and lasso regressions were also estimated to evaluate the relative importance of each correlate. Higher descriptive norms for friend use, older age, and mothers’ inclination for NMUPD were risk factors for daughters’ NMUPD, while a closer mother-daughter relationship and mothers’ disapproving attitudes towards NMUPD were protective factors. The three analysis approaches were corroborative. Results suggest friend descriptive norms, mother-daughter relationship quality, and mothers’ attitudes about NMUPD are important prevention targets.

Background: Non-medical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD) refers to the use of prescription drugs which are traditionally utilized to manage pain or treat psychiatric problems but without a doctor’s prescription. In 2010, an investigation by the Substance Use and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) revealed that 5.3% of young adults (18 to 25-year-olds) in the United States reported past-month NMUPD. NMUPD has become a growing concern owing to associations with consequences such as college dropout, poor academic achievement, and health jeopardizing behaviors. College students' NMUPD has been well documented in the United States. Limited studies, however, have been conducted among college students in China. The purposes of this study are to examine the prevalence and motives of NMUPD among college students in China, and to assess its relationship with stress (i.e., perceived stress and traumatic events), mental health problems (depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)), utilization of healthcare, cultural orientation, and protective factors (i.e., resilience and future orientation). Methods: In Jan-April 2017, online data were collected using SONA system from a total of 720 undergraduates at Beijing Normal University (BNU) and University of Macau (UM) with an average age of 19.65. All participants reported their nonmedical use of prescription drugs (i.e., opioids, sedatives, stimulants, and anxiolytics) in their lifetime and the past three months, stress, mental health, utilization of healthcare, cultural orientation, and protective factors. Spearman’s rank-order corrections and logistic regression were employed for statistical analyses. Results: Findings indicate that 41.2% of Chinese students reported taking prescription drugs without a doctor’s prescription. The most commonly misused prescription drugs were opioids (40.5% lifetime use, 31.8% past-three-months use), followed by sedatives (1.8% lifetime, 0.8% past 3 months), anxiolytics (0.9% lifetime,0 .3% past three months), and stimulants (0.2% lifetime, 0% past three months). Bivariate analyses suggest significantly positive correlations of lifetime NMUPD with mental health problems (anxiety and PTSD), cultural orientation (individualism and collectivism), and utilization of healthcare (frequency of healthcare use, time spent for healthcare, and money spent for healthcare). Similar results were found in terms of past-three-month NMUPD. The results of logistic regressions indicate the significant association of lifetime NMUPD with individualism of cultural orientation, and frequency of healthcare use. Specially, individualism, frequency of healthcare use, and time spent for healthcare were found to be associated with lifetime opioid misuse, and depression was significantly associated with sedative misuse. Resilience was negatively associated with lifetime sedative misuse. Frequency of healthcare use was also found to be positively associated with past-three-month opioid misuse. Conclusion: Utilization of healthcare, cultural orientation, and mental health problems appear to be the factors associated with NMUPD among college students at BNU and UM. More discussion is needed in Chinese society about regulation of prescription drug use. Future culturally-tailored prevention intervention programs may be beneficial to reduce the risk of NMUPD among Chinese college students.