Funded under competitive grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Monitoring the Future is based at the University of Michigan inside the Institute for Social Research. Surveys are sent to 8th, 10th and 12th graders across the U.S. Questions measuring experiences with drugs and alcohol focus on students’ age of first use, their attitudes toward use, how available they perceive the drugs to be and connections between peer groups and drug use.

The goal is to learn which factors, such as social changes and an individual’s transitions during development, may contribute to certain behaviors over time. Follow-up surveys are also sent to 12th graders upon leaving high school in an attempt to track young adult behaviors further.

Lloyd Johnston, University of Michigan principal investigator for Monitoring the Future, said in a 2009 press release that marijuana use is seeing a gradual increase, in comparison to a nearly ten-year decline. About 12 percent of U.S. 8th graders, 27 percent of high school sophomores and one-third of high school seniors reported trying marijuana in 2009. He also said young adult beliefs about the level of danger or risk of using marijuana is declining, as is overall teen disapproval of the drug. This is significant because the attitudes of teens have a strong ability to affect drug usage trends.

Johnston points out a connection between marijuana use and an increase of overall illegal drug use from 2007 to 2009, stating that marijuana remains the most popularly used illegal drug – and that illicit drug use as a whole tends to follow trends in marijuana.

Hallucingens, such as LSD, seem to be experiencing a gradual decline in use, especially among 12th graders. Cocaine usage has reached its lowest point since the 1990s, and drugs like amphetamines and tranquilizers have also reached lower levels of use than a decade ago. In general, the prescription drug category, including analgesic drugs like Vicodin, is not showing a dramatic increase in usage, but rather a level trend. OxyContin, however, is showing an increase in popularity from 2002 among sophomores – a trend Johnston says will require more research to solidify.

Johnston notes that some dangerous drugs are experiencing a reduction in perceived threat or risk among teens, including LSD, ecstasy and inhalants. The numbers of teens who view these drugs a “great risk” have fallen noticeably, which could create a resurgence in use.

Alcohol usage shows a steady decline over time among 8th graders, 10th graders and high school seniors. Johnston suggests that legal measures to curb underage drinking may be reducing teen drinking as a whole.

The Monitoring the Future survey continues to provide valuable information about teen drug and alcohol use, revealing successes in some areas, but also pointing to potentially dangerous trends in teen attitudes toward drugs.

Adolescents are educated in health classes about the dangers of the substances, and often have a good foundation even before school education because their parents have spent time talking with them about drugs, alcohol and tobacco. A new study further illustrates the effectiveness of parent involvement and preventive education.

The study was conducted by Traci M. Schwinn and Stevven P. Schinke to evaluate the effectiveness of using a skills-based CD-ROM intervention. The exercise would be conducted both with and without parents. The objective of the study was to test this method to see if it would reduce alcohol use among urban youth when a follow-up was conducted six years later.

The researchers recruited 513 participants, who had a mean age of 10.8 years. The participants were randomly split into three groups. The first group would use a youth CD-ROM intervention along with a parent component. The second group would do the youth CD-ROM intervention only. The third group was the control group.

Each participant completed measures before the test, immediately after, and during annual follow-up appointments. The two arms that participated in the CD-ROM exercise completed the CD-ROM between pretest and posttest measures, and also received booster interventions between each follow-up measure.

The participants in each group that used the CD-ROM had a better record through their teen years with respect to substance use. With 80 percent of the initial participants retained at the 6-year follow-up, both CD-ROM groups reported less past-month alcohol and cigarette use. They also reported fewer instances of binge drinking and secondary consequences related to alcohol consumption.

Although the number of drinking peers in both the intervention groups and the control group was similar, the teens in the intervention groups indicated more developed skills at refusing alcohol.

In one area, parent involvement seems to have enhanced the teens’ ability to avoid substances. The past-month cigarette use was lower among the intervention-plus-parent group when compared with the intervention-only group.

The findings of the study indicate that CD-ROM interventions, with booster educational sessions and parent involvement may be very effective in reducing the use of substances by teens.
 

New research featured in a recent Science Daily release takes the study into drug use beyond genes and environment and looks at other factors. For instance, a young woman with a genetic-based predisposition to substance use is also predisposed to select friends who smoke, drink or use drugs. As a result, her environment is altered to encourage substance use.

In addition, this exposure to friends who also use substances increases her genetic inclination to use drugs regularly. As a result, her already increased likelihood for substance use is increased even more.

Washington University researchers examined a sample of more than 2,000 female twins, looking for links between women who regularly used tobacco, alcohol and drugs and women whose friends were involved in the use of alcohol, cigarettes and cannabis. The researchers found links between genetic vulnerability to regular use and the increased likelihood to use as a result of exposure to a certain set of friends who use.

While we often select peers with similar interests, this study highlighted that heritable influences on an individual’s own regular substance use increased as they affiliated with more drug-using peers. Increased affiliations are directly correlated with a more ‘genetic’ form of regular substance use.
 

Psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and schizophrenia are linked to sleeping problems. Having difficulty sleeping for more than one week is considered primary insomnia, and more than 64 million Americans suffer from insomnia each year. Adults require an average of seven to eight hours of sleep per night, and teenagers require about an hour more.

Up to 14 percent of 11- to 17-year-olds don’t get enough sleep, which can lead to poor academic performance, psychological issues, and social and behavioral problems. Previous research has shown that sleep problems among adolescents can contribute to depression in young adulthood.

Sara Pieters, a neuropsychology doctoral student from the University of Nijmegan, surveyed 236 girls and 195 boys between the ages of 11 and 14 to examine the relationship between sleep problems and alcohol abuse. People with sleep problems often drink alcohol to try to fall asleep, but this can lead to alcohol abuse and dependency, and actually disrupts sleep as alcohol interferes with the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep, causing a person to feel less rested upon waking.

Pieters and her colleagues found that teens who stayed up later and had sleep problems started drinking alcohol earlier in life. Teens who went through puberty earlier also tended to stay up later, have more sleep problems, and drink alcohol at an earlier age. This association was still present after adjusting for education level, gender, and psychological health.

This study suggests that there is an important link between sleep problems and alcohol abuse even in young adolescents, and the link appears to be associated with puberty. However, the authors note that the study couldn’t determine whether these young people drink because they can’t sleep, or can’t sleep because they drink.

Source: Psychcentral, Jessica Ward Jones, MD, MPH, Alcohol Use Linked to Sleep Problems in Young Teens, June 28, 2010

A recent study examined the consequences of an adolescent onset and ongoing use of alcohol and dependence in men, looking at the adolescent risk factors and adult outcomes. The study was conducted by Brian M. Hicks, William G. Iacono, and Matt McGue of the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota.

Understanding that there is extensive research completed on the correlates of alcohol dependence, there was very little understanding of representative birth cohorts that have examined the results of an adolescent onset and persistent course of alcohol use disorder on a wide range of psychosocial variables.
The researchers used a longitudinal design with a community-based sample of 530 men. They investigated the impact of adolescent onset and persistent course of alcohol use disorder. Adolescent onset was defined as before the age of 17, and persistent course was defined as through the age of 29.
The impact of alcohol use disorder was examined on adolescent and adult functioning including substance abuse, antisocial behavior, mental health problems, and overall psychosocial functioning, among other elements.
The results revealed that the adolescent onset of alcohol use disorder was associated with severe problems across multiple types of psychosocial functioning in adolescence. Problems with behavioral disinhibition in adolescence led to a persistent problem with alcohol use disorder.
Almost 40 percent of the men who struggled with alcohol use disorder in adolescence were able to desist by age 29 and were similar in their functioning to men who had never experienced a problem with an alcohol use disorder. Men who initiated problems with alcohol in adolescence tended to have the most severe deficits in functioning.
The findings of this study highlight the significance of understanding the etiology of alcohol use disorder and the developmental course as an individual passes from adolescence into adulthood.
The study’s findings are encouraging to those who have struggled during adolescence with an alcohol use disorder, in that they may achieve the same level of functioning in society as those who have never struggled with alcohol.
The authors of the study suggest that future research focus on the relationship between alcohol use disorder and the impact that behavioral disinhibition and social environment variables may have on the continuation of an alcohol use disorder problem.
 

Sponsored by the PIRE Behavioral Health Research Center of the Southwest in Albuquerque, New Mexico and the Multnomah County Circuit Court in Portland, Oregon, this study shows that more than half of DUI offenders also suffer from at least one mental illness in addition to a drug or alcohol problem.

Results from this study show that nearly 60 percent of those with two or more DUI convictions reported experiencing major depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder or post traumatic stress disorder over their lifetime.

Sandra Lapham, M.D., M.P.H., the principal investigator of the study, examined individuals who were convicted of at least two DUI offenses in the past 10 years. Within the study group, 40 percent had three or more DUI arrests. The majority of the individuals in the study reported having at least one psychiatric disorder. While instances occurred in both women and men, women had higher rates of depression and were more likely to suffer PTSD.

Lapham, director of the PIRE Behavioral Health Research Center of the Southwest, argues that the results of this study demonstrates the importance of screening repeat offenders for multiple disorders. She claims the offender should be viewed as a unique person with a unique set of issues. If psychiatric problems exist, these problems need to be treated along with drug and alcohol issues. Lapham supports psychiatric screenings and assessments by the courts.

Individuals participating in this study were part of a three-year program, Driving Under the Influence of Intoxicants Intensive Supervision Program (DISP). The program was developed by the Multnomah County Circuit Court. Participants in the program barter for reduced jail time by agreeing to intensive probation, close monitoring and built-in punishments and rewards.

Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Eric J. Bloch believes the findings from this study are enough to encourage the courts to develop a more comprehensive approach to dealing with repeat drunk drivers that are difficult to treat. If the courts understand there are other problems at play in the situation, a different approach might be able to produce more positive results. By including mental health assessments, the DUI offender may be able to enter a program that can reduce the chance of offending again.

A recent Science Daily release examined a study by researchers at the Universities of Manchester, UK, and Western Sydney, Australia, contradicts the concept that sports stars act as role models for those who follow sports.

"The perceived drinking habits of sports stars and its relationship to the drinking levels of young people has never been examined empirically, despite these sporting heroes often being touted as influential role models for young people," said lead researcher Dr Kerry O’Brien, a lecturer in Manchester’s School of Psychological Sciences, in Science Daily.

"Our research shows that young people, both sporting participants and non-sporting participants, don’t appear to be influenced by the drinking habits of high-profile sportspeople as depicted in the mass media."

In highlighting previous research done in this space, O’Brien suggests that sports and sports stars are much more likely to influence the drinking behavior of fans when used as marketing tools by the alcohol industry.

In asking more than 1,000 young sportspeople at elite and amateur level as well as non-sportspeople to report the perceived drinking behavior of high-profile sport stars compared with their friends, researchers found that both sporting and non-sporting study participants believed sports stars actually drank much less than they did themselves. At the same time, they believed their friends drank substantially more.

Dr O’Brien added: "We are not suggesting that sports stars should not be encouraged to drink responsibly but it’s disingenuous to place the blame on them for setting the bad example. It is time that sport administrators consider their own social responsibilities when weighing up the costs and benefits of using their sports and sport stars to market alcohol on behalf of the alcohol industry."
 

Penn State College of Medicine researchers have been working in cooperation with Kathleen A. Grant, Ph.D., at the Oregon National Primate Research Center to measure a set of protein changes in the blood linked to alcohol to see if such activity can lead to a more accurate diagnostic test.

"The challenge in alcohol abuse as opposed to substance abuse — things like cocaine or heroin or PCP — is that alcohol is a perfectly legal substance for those over 21," said Willard M. Freeman, Ph.D., department of pharmacology and lead investigator, in Science Daily.

"Unlike routine testing for illicit drugs, you can’t just look for a trace of alcohol because many people enjoy a drink in a responsible manner and alcohol is very quickly metabolized. Discriminating between excessive and responsible levels of drinking makes this a greater challenge."

In their research, these scientists identified a set of 17 proteins in the blood that were able to accurately predict alcohol usage 90 percent of the time in non-human primates. Usage was separated into three categories: no alcohol use, drinking up to two drinks per day and drinking at least six drinks per day. Protein levels rose and declined depending on alcohol consumption.

"We observed that the levels of some proteins increased or decreased with as little as one or two drinks a day," Freeman said. "These same changes occurred with heavier levels of drinking. We also found other proteins that responded only to heavy levels of drinking. Combined, these proteins allow us to classify subjects into non-drinking, alcohol-using, and alcohol-abusing groups."
 

Maria Wong, a Psychology Professor at ISU, has spent the past 12 years studying the connection between childhood sleeping problems and drug and alcohol abuse. She has followed nearly 386 children and young adults, 292 males, and 94 females across the United States. "We usually do about six or seven (interview) sessions (per visit),” she said.

The children were asked questions regarding their physical health, drug use habits, academic performance, and parental relations. The sessions also consisted of meetings with parents.

Through her research, Wong discovered that children who had early sleep difficulties were twice as liable to indulge in drug or alcohol abuse later on in life. The drugs included marijuana, heroin, and cocaine.

Wong said that the dearth of sleep can cause a person to have poor self-control over his or her body. She said that gathering of lost sleep can result in an adolescent or young adult becoming dependent on certain substances later on in life to function appropriately.

"You end up medicating yourself to make yourself feel better, but then you’re less able to control yourself, and that might lead to poor decision making,” she said, adding that there are various factors behind childhood sleep troubles, generally attributed to either hereditary or environmental factors.

Wong stressed that parents should play a pivotal role in preventing sleep deficiency among their children.
 

A recent examination of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) reveals that co-dependence or abuse of alcohol and drugs is a consistent problem. While substance abuse programs continue to adapt to current trends to help individuals overcome addictions, the abuse of multiple substances (especially in general, alcohol and drugs) remains a challenge.

The 2008 NSDUH reported that 54 percent of persons indicating treatment for drugs in the last year also had been treated for alcohol, and 37 percent of those who had treatment for alcohol also had treatment for drugs.

In both 1997 and 2007, the NSDUH showed that the most common combinations of alcohol and drug co-abuse were alcohol and marijuana and alcohol and cocaine. The combination of alcohol and cocaine, however, decreased between 1997 and 2007, going from 51.1 percent to 44.8 percent.

Overall trends show that between 1997 and 2007. co-abuse declined. The proportion of substance abuse treatment admissions that reported co-abuse of alcohol and drugs decreased from 44.2 percent to 38.3 percent. The proportion of admissions for alcohol only also decreased, from 27.7 to 22.3 percent. However, drug-only admissions went up, from 25.7 percent to 36.4 percent.

The majority of those admitted for co-abuse in both 1997 and 2007 were male and non-Hispanic White. Employment status was also consistent, with most admissions not being in the labor force or were unemployed. About a third of admissions had less than a high school education, and about one-fifth had some college education.

The common sources for referral were the criminal justice system or self- and individual referrals. The referrals from healthcare providers decreased between 1997 and 2007, going from 22.9 percent to 18.5 percent.

Relapse is a consistent problem. In 1997 and 2007, nearly two-thirds of co-abuse admissions had been in treatment once before.

While the overall proportion of substance abuse showed a decline in co-abuse admissions, it was still over a third of all admissions in 2007. Combined with the information that over two-thirds of admissions are there for a relapsed condition, it is critical to consider the impact of co-abuse.