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1.3M in U.S. abuse prescription drugs

BALTIMORE, April 21 (UPI) -- A Maryland researcher has found that nearly 1.3 million U.S. residents age 12 and older abuse prescription drugs and require treatment for the problem.

Older adults, women, individuals in poor health and those who drink alcohol daily are most likely to develop a prescription drug habit, Linda Simoni-Wastila of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, said Wednesday.

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Her work, summarized in the latest issue of the American Journal of Public Health, revealed nearly 1.3 million U.S. residents 12 and older need treatment for prescription drug abuse.

She and her colleagues did not find a link between prescription drug abuse and use of illegal drugs like marijuana or cocaine.

"Although other studies have linked nonmedical drug use to illicit drug use, our findings suggest that problem use of narcotics, sedative hypnotics and tranquilizers occurs in the absence of illicit drug taking," Simoni-Wastila said.

She calculated the number of prescription drug abusers using data from the 1991-93 National Household Surveys on Drug Abuse. The surveys indicate more than 8.2 million people, or 4 percent of the U.S. population, have used prescription drugs for non-medical purposes in the past year.

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