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Apr 16
2009
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Studies performed on animals indicate that adolescents are more likely than adults to become addicted to oxycodone (OxyContin), a powerful prescription painkiller related to opioids like heroin and morphine.
Researchers at Rockefeller University in New York allowed adolescent and adult mice to take as much oxycodone as they wanted. The younger mice were more sensitive to the drug and took less. If the drug was introduced to them again as adults, they were more sensitive and reactive to it than were mice that had never been exposed to it.
Some experts believe that this study shows that adolescents react differently to oxycodone, and that the drug can cause neurological changes that make them more sensitive to it as adults.
The authors of the new study believe that teenagers who abuse oxycodone recreationally react differently to it than people in pain do, and are therefore more likely to become addicted.
Oxycodone is frequently prescribed to terminally ill cancer patients. It has also become a popular drug of choice among 14- to 24-year-olds. While the abuse of cocaine and methamphetamine has fallen in recent years, the abuse of prescription painkillers rose 12 percent in 2006, the latest year for which government statistics are available.
Researchers at Rockefeller University in New York allowed adolescent and adult mice to take as much oxycodone as they wanted. The younger mice were more sensitive to the drug and took less. If the drug was introduced to them again as adults, they were more sensitive and reactive to it than were mice that had never been exposed to it.
Some experts believe that this study shows that adolescents react differently to oxycodone, and that the drug can cause neurological changes that make them more sensitive to it as adults.
The authors of the new study believe that teenagers who abuse oxycodone recreationally react differently to it than people in pain do, and are therefore more likely to become addicted.
Oxycodone is frequently prescribed to terminally ill cancer patients. It has also become a popular drug of choice among 14- to 24-year-olds. While the abuse of cocaine and methamphetamine has fallen in recent years, the abuse of prescription painkillers rose 12 percent in 2006, the latest year for which government statistics are available.
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