Despite overall prescription drug addiction abuse dropping dramatically among adolescents over the past 15 years, addiction treatment centers across the country are seeing a surge in the number of young people hooked on Xanax, according to Pew.
addiction practitioners say they’re seeing a surge in the number of young patients who are hooked on Xanax. Many take high daily doses of the drug, sometimes in deadly combination with opioids and alcohol. -Pew
This increase has yet to be reflected in national data, which doesn't surprise Boston Children's Hospital head of adolescent addition, Sharon Leavy - who says that addition treatment centers are "the tip of the spear," and she is "not surprised that the spike in Xanax use isn’t reflected in national data yet."
Addiction specialists say they're expecting an "onslaught of teens addicted to Xanax and other sedatives," according to Pew - one of many anti-anxiety drugs known as benzodiazepines, or "benzos."
“Adolescent benzo use has skyrocketed,” Levy said, “and more kids are being admitted to hospitals for benzo withdrawal because the seizures are so dangerous.” At the same time, she said, far fewer kids are seeking treatment for prescription opioid addiction.
“When I ask them if they’re using opioids, they say, ‘No. I wouldn’t touch the stuff.’”
Like any addictive substance, Xanax when used early increases the risk of addiction later in life. According to the U.S. Surgeon General’s 2016 report on drugs and alcohol, nearly 70 percent of adolescents who try an illicit drug before age 13 will develop an addiction within seven years, compared with 27 percent for those who first try an illicit drug after age 17. -Pew
Johns Hopkins psychiatrist and professor Marc Fishman says that benzos are rapidly overtaking opioids as the primary prescription drug of abuse among adolescent patients seen at Mountain Manor Treatment Centers in Baltimore and other locations throughout Maryland. Many, he says, are extreme, "high-dose users."
Highly addictive
Xanax and other benzos are incredibly addictive, while people with mental illness are at a far greater risk of addiction than the general population, said Fishman.
And while there are three FDA-approved medications which can treat the symptoms of opioid addiction, "no medicines exist to blunt the withdrawal symptoms and cravings associated with benzodiazepine addiction. Instead, patients typically enter residential treatment where a specialist gradually tapers them off the medication. If stopped too quickly, benzodiazepine withdrawal can result in seizures and even death," according to Pew.
