Adolescent and Parent Management of Controlled Prescription Medications

Abstract

Background: Most adolescents who misuse controlled prescription medications acquire them from home settings. However, little is known regarding household management (storage, administration, and disposal) of these medications. Objective: To describe household management of controlled medications. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study with paired data using brief, online, confidential surveys of adolescents and parents via an adolescent medicine clinic associated with a large academic center. Eligible adolescents were 12–18 years with at least one controlled prescription medication in the home. Six core safe management strategies for controlled medications were identified based on current recommendations. Data were collected and analyzed in 2017. Results: Of the 243 adolescent-parent dyads, 78.2% (n = 190) dyads store medication out of sight, 68.7% (n = 167) lock up medications, 78.2% (n = 190) do not store pills besides a school nurse’s office or a parent’s place of work, 43.6% (n = 106) provide periodic parental monitoring, 64.6% (n = 157) frequently dispose of unused controlled medications (at least every 3–4 months), and 80.2% (n = 195) dispose of controlled medications in a prescription drug take-back program or by flushing. Families with an adolescent prescription for a controlled medication were more likely to use several core management strategies (periodic parental monitoring, frequent disposal, and appropriate disposal location). Families with a household pain reliever were 8.7 times (95% CI 3.3, 23.3) as likely to not keep spare pills in inappropriate locations. Conclusions/Importance: Most families do not practice all recommended safe management strategies for controlled medications. Healthcare professionals should promote safe management to reduce controlled prescription medication misuse.

Keywords:

• Controlled medications
• prescription medication misuse
• household management

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by Health Services and Research Administration, NRSA for Primary Medical Care T32HP22240 Research Funds. Funding was also provided by DA035464, DA040213, and the University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Institute which is supported by UL1 TR001857.