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 Adolescents who binge drink are more likely to drive drunk or ride
with drivers who are under the influence in early adulthood, and
they're also more apt to become extreme binge drinkers who
experience blackouts, one of the studies suggests.
Teens are also more apt to engage in risky driving behaviors when
they misuse prescription opioids, a second study suggests. When
teens abuse opioids, they're more likely as well to misuse alcohol
and other drugs, engage in risky sexual behaviors, experience
violence and attempt suicide.
"Substance use such as prescription opioid misuse may alter a
misuser's judgment and cognition, thus potentially increasing
likelihood for engagement in other risky behaviors," said Dr. Devika
Bhatia, lead author of the opioid study and a researcher at the
University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora.
"Additionally, engaging in prescription opioid misuse may have an
impact on peer groups that are more likely to engage in other risky
behaviors," Bhatia said by email.
For the opioid study, Bhatia and colleagues examined survey data
collected from a nationally-representative sample of almost 15,000
U.S. high school students in 2017. Overall, 14% reported misusing
prescription opioids at least once.
With any history of prescription opioid misuse, teens were 23 times
more likely to have used heroin, almost 19 times more likely to have
tried methamphetamines, over 16 times more likely to have tried
cocaine, and more than 10 times as likely to have tried marijuana,
researchers report in Pediatrics.
A history of prescription opioid misuse was also associated with
five to six times greater odds that teens would try smoking or
vaping, as well as a more than quadrupled chance they would have at
least four previous sex partners and intercourse without condoms.
In addition, prescription opioid misuse was tied to more than six
times the odds of drunk driving.
The second study looked in depth at driving outcomes associated with
binge drinking. Researchers followed more than 2,000 teens for about
four years starting in their senior year of high school, when 27% of
participants reported binge drinking.
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To assess binge drinking, researchers asked how many times teen
girls had four or more drinks in a row within two hours, and how
often teen boys had five or more drinks in two hours.
Compared to teens who didn't binge drink during their senior year,
those who did were more than five times as likely to drive while
intoxicated during the next two years. Four years after high school,
young adults who were teen binge drinkers were still more than twice
as likely to drive drunk, researchers report in Pediatrics.
Teen binge drinkers were also two to four times more likely to ride
in cars with drunk drivers or experience blackouts in early
adulthood. And young adults who were binge drinkers during
adolescence were also twice as likely to become extreme binge
drinkers.
Researchers also looked at whether parents' awareness of teen
drinking or parents' efforts to discourage drinking might impact
risky drinking and driving behaviors in early adulthood. Generally,
young adults were less likely to engage in risky drinking or driving
behaviors when they knew their parents were aware of any binge
drinking during adolescence and when their parents discouraged
drinking.
"Parental practices may have enduring effects protecting emerging
adults against driving while intoxicated, riding while intoxicated,
and blackouts several years after high school," said lead study
author Dr. Federico Vaca of Yale School of Medicine in New Haven,
Connecticut.
When parents actively discourage risky behaviors, and pay attention
when teens get into trouble, it may also impact the chances that
young people will engage in other dangerous activities, Vaca said by
email.
"Other negative consequences have a high likelihood of occurring
with binge drinking, extreme binge drinking and/or blacking out
including risky sexual behaviors, rape, and fights/physical
assaults," Vaca said.
SOURCE: https://bit.ly/2N3rl3K and https://bit.ly/2N3EQjX and
Pediatrics, online January 6, 2019.
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