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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Misuse of Prescription Drugs Research Report

About this resource:

HHS Non-systematic Review

Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse

Last Reviewed: June 2020

Workgroups: Older Adults Workgroup, Substance Use Workgroup

This report defines misuse of prescription drugs and describes the extent of prescription drug misuse in the United States. It also provides information about the safety of using prescription drugs in combination with other medicines, describes ways to prevent and treat prescription drug misuse and addiction, and lists resources that provide more information. In addition, the report includes information about prescription drug misuse in specific populations, like adolescents and older adults.

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Objectives related to this resource (2)

Reduce the proportion of older adults who use inappropriate medications — OA‑02
Baseline only
Reduce the proportion of people who misused prescription drugs in the past year — SU‑12
Little or no detectable change

Suggested Citation

1.

National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2020). Misuse of Prescription Drugs Research Report. Retrieved from https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/misuse-prescription-drugs