• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Sunday, August 3, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Health

Opioid addiction treatment in teens focus of new project

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
April 10, 2019
in Health
Reading Time: 2 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

HERSHEY, Pa. — Substance use disorders continue to rise at alarming rates among adolescents, with opioid abuse contributing to this significant public health problem. A Penn State researcher and his team will receive over $1.8 million over three years from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to investigate how opioid use is treated in adolescence.

According to principal investigator Doug Leslie, director of the Center for Applied Studies in Health Economics and professor of public health sciences and psychiatry at Penn State College of Medicine, the nonmedical use of prescription opioids by adolescents has surpassed all illicit drugs after marijuana.

“Adolescent opioid abuse often leads to dependence and poses serious risk for heroin abuse or overdose. While we know a lot about how opioid use disorder (OUD) is treated in adults, typically through a mix of psychotherapy and medications, we don’t know how kids are being treated.”

Leslie, also an affiliate faculty member of Penn State’s Consortium to Combat Substance Abuse and the Clinical and Translational Research Institute, suspects many adolescents are not receiving adequate psychotherapy. And since many of the addiction medications are not approved for pediatric use, adolescents are probably not receiving them either.

Additionally, barriers to treatment, such as lack of knowledge, insufficient access, and inadequate health care further enable the epidemic to persist. “It is especially concerning when you consider a large proportion of adults with substance use disorders report drug use beginning in adolescence,” Leslie said.

To discover how OUD is being treated in adolescents, Leslie and his research team will study two insurance claims databases that include both publicly and privately insured individuals aged 10 to 21 for the years 2005 through 2016. Specifically, they will identify individuals who had an OUD diagnosis, with at least one year of continuous enrollment in treatment before and after the date of the first OUD diagnosis.

This will enable the researchers to follow patients over long periods of time to identify opioid use patterns leading up to OUD, as well as long-term treatment patterns and outcomes, including relapse. Additionally, they will be able to link the patients to family members to answer important questions regarding parental opioid use.

“With this information, we’ll be able to identify patterns and bring awareness to an extremely vulnerable age group that has been deeply affected by the widespread misuse of opioids,” Leslie explained. “As a result, providers, insurers and policymakers will be better able to design developmentally appropriate treatment processes and policies to help alleviate this major public health crisis.”

###

Other researchers on the project are Guodong Liu, assistant professor of public health, Penn State College of Medicine; Bradley Stein, child and adolescent psychiatrist and health services researcher; Andrew Dick, health economist; and Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, health economist, all at RAND Corporation; and Benjamin Druss, Rosalynn Carter Chair in Mental Health, Emory University.

Media Contact
Heather Hottle Robbins
[email protected]
https://news.psu.edu/story/567359/2019/04/04/research/opioid-addiction-treatment-teens-focus-new-project

Tags: AddictionBehaviorDrugsMedicine/HealthMental HealthPublic HealthSocial/Behavioral Science
Share12Tweet7Share2ShareShareShare1

Related Posts

blank

Noradrenaline Boosts Amygdala Memory Precision for Similar Events

August 3, 2025
Old Mitochondria Drive Stem Cell Niche Renewal

Old Mitochondria Drive Stem Cell Niche Renewal

August 3, 2025

How the Brain Integrates Multimodal Cues for Direction

August 3, 2025

LONP1 Controls Mitochondrial Folding, Impacts Diabetes

August 3, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Blind to the Burn

    Overlooked Dangers: Debunking Common Myths About Skin Cancer Risk in the U.S.

    60 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15
  • Neuropsychiatric Risks Linked to COVID-19 Revealed

    48 shares
    Share 19 Tweet 12
  • Dr. Miriam Merad Honored with French Knighthood for Groundbreaking Contributions to Science and Medicine

    46 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 12
  • Study Reveals Beta-HPV Directly Causes Skin Cancer in Immunocompromised Individuals

    38 shares
    Share 15 Tweet 10

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

NSUN5 Drives Liver Cancer via m5C-EFNA3 Glycolysis

Noradrenaline Boosts Amygdala Memory Precision for Similar Events

Rigid Crosslinker Enables Nondestructive Patterned QLEDs

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.