Loading...
Historical prescription opioid misuse (POM) has been linked to teenage suicidal ideation (SI). However, the relationship between the timing of POM — past versus current — and SI, which could inform prevention strategies, has not been examined. Researchers thus analyzed responses from 9th to 12th graders using the U.S. nationally representative Youth Risk Behavior Survey. This survey contains information both about three categories of POM (none, prior but not current use, and current use in past 30 days) and about suicidal activity (ideation, planning, and attempts).
During 2019, among the 8,661 respondents from all 50 states, 7.4% of students self-reported past POM and 7.2% reported current POM, while 19.0% had suicidal ideation, 16.1% made …