Misuse of prescription drugs on university campuses: options for prevention

Abstract

There has been little research on prescription drug misuse among university students in the UK. In this paper, we report the findings of a survey of students in one university on the extent and nature of their prescription drug misuse and explore some of the prevention programmes that might reduce it. The research found that a notable proportion of students who completed our questionnaire reported that they had misused prescription drugs. The most common drugs of misuse were pain relievers and the most common forms of these were the opioid-based analgesics. Sleeping medications were also commonly misused. A review of the research literature on methods used to prevent prescription drug misuse found a wide range of innovative programmes including: web-based surveillance systems, management systems for monitoring and policing the supply of prescriptions, enforcement programmes aimed to reduce the supply of illegal internet pharmacies, screen tests for identifying students at risk, and pharmaceutical advances in the development of non-abusable drug delivery systems. The paper concludes by appealing for more research to be done to understand the nature of prescription drug misuse among university students and for further tests and evaluations of the effectiveness of programmes designed to prevent it.

Keywords:

• prescription drug misuse
• prevention
• technology

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the university for hosting the study and for providing access to email lists and agreeing to mass emailing. We would also like to thank all of the university staff and students who gave up their time to complete the questionnaires.