FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
Sports can be tough competition for high school boys, and sometimes pain from an injury is bad enough for a doctor to prescribe painkillers. But a researcher warns that opioid drugs can cause problems if they’re not watched closely.
At the University of Michigan, Philip Veliz looked at national survey data on 1,540 teens. He found boy athletes were more likely than non-athletes to report having used and misused opioids in the previous year. Veliz suspects injuries led to the prescriptions.
He says drug use needs careful supervision:
"Parents should be the ones monitoring these medications and they should be the ones who dispense the medications to their adolescents."
The study in the Journal of Adolescent Health was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Learn more at healthfinder.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.
