Nonmedical Prescription Opioid Use Inclines Youth to Heroin Use Later

High school students who use nonmedical opioids are likely to use heroin in their adolescence. Heroin is a drug with substantial addiction potential that poses extensive medical, psychological, social, and legal consequences. The main objective of the study is to determine whether nonmedical prescription opioid use is associated with subsequent initiation of heroin use in adolescents.

This observational study used data from a survey of behavioral health that included students from 10 Los Angeles-area high schools to examine whether nonmedical prescription opioid use was associated with later risk of heroin use in adolescents.

Adam M. Leventhal, Ph.D., of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, is the corresponding author.

In this 8-wave cohort study of 14-year-old and 15-year-old high school students in Los Angeles, California, who had never used heroin at baseline, youth reporting no, prior, and current nonmedical prescription opioid use during high school exhibited estimated cumulative probabilities of subsequent heroin use initiation by end of the 42-month follow-up of 1.7%, 10.7%, and 13.1%, respectively.

Nonmedical prescription opioid use was prospectively associated with subsequent heroin use initiation during 4 years of adolescence among Los Angeles youth. Further research is needed to understand whether this association is causal.

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Source-Eurekalert