Drink cough syrup to pick you up? Take diabetes medicine to lose weight? Beware of Substance Abuse Harming Teens
18-year-old Xiaoyan is studying in a technical secondary school in Northeast China. Among Xiaoyan's classmates, buying a cough syrup is popular.
"I have some insomnia, so I bought this medicine." Xiaoyan said, some students don't have insomnia, and they will buy it to drink.
The situation reflected by Xiaoyan is not uncommon among some young people.
For non-medical purposes, a small number of teenagers repeatedly use certain dependent drugs in large quantities, and some even use cough syrup as a refreshing drink, seriously threatening their physical and mental health.
Drug abuse is on the rise
"Some cough syrups contain trace amounts of codeine and ephedrine, which can stimulate the central nervous system and have sedative and analgesic effects. They are mainly used for cough relief, but large amounts and long-term use can easily lead to addiction and dependence." Zhang Jingyi, director of the clinical pharmacy department of Shenyang Northern Theater General Hospital, said that in recent years, the number of young people who come to the hospital to buy such drugs has shown an increasing trend, especially high school students and college students.
She once saw a senior high school patient who had more than ten bottles of 250ml cough syrup in his schoolbag and drank the syrup as a refreshing drink all the time.
Xu Jie, Director of the Drug Rehabilitation Department of Beijing High-tech Hospital, said that in 2017, the department admitted more than 50 patients with a certain cough syrup addiction, in 2018 the number reached more than 100, and in 2021 the number exceeded 400. Abuse for medical purposes, the one-year reuse rate is as high as 89%.
In 2021, during the investigation of a public interest litigation case, the procuratorate of Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province traced 89 people who abused a certain cough syrup throughout the city.
"At present, 30% to 40% of the patients in the substance addiction clinic have depression and anxiety problems, and about 50% of the depression and anxiety patients have substance abuse, including drug abuse. If antidepressants and The mixed use of certain cough syrups may cause irreversible damage to the body and lead to more serious illnesses." Sun Jijun, deputy chief physician of the Substance Dependence Department of the Mental Health Center Affiliated to Zhejiang University School of Medicine, said that in addition to cough and pain relief drugs, a drug originally used for diabetes The drugs used to treat it are also used as weight-loss drugs by some teenagers.
Liu Hao, Deputy Chief Physician of Hubei Provincial Mental Health Center and Wuhan University People's Hospital Mental Health Center, said that adolescent patients with drug dependence often encounter difficulties in life, such as unsatisfactory family relationships, unhealthy campus and social relationships, etc. , Mentally more depressed, depressed, anxious, so turn to rely on drugs.
In addition, groups of young people tend to imitate each other, and the drug abuse behavior of individual people is easy to spread.
"Adolescents are in a critical period of physical and mental growth. Once they become dependent on some drugs, they will clinically show different forms of mental symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and hallucinations. They will also reduce the basic physiological demands of adolescents in terms of appetite and sleep. In terms of physical and mental aspects, there are problems such as reduced reaction speed, memory loss, and personality changes." Liu Hao said that acute poisoning caused by drug abuse may even endanger the lives of young people.
Loopholes in prescription drug management
At present, my country has listed 121 narcotic drugs, 154 psychotropic drugs and 174 non-medicinal narcotic drugs and psychotropic drugs.
Relevant drugs are strictly regulated.
However, some cough and analgesic drugs are not currently included in the scope of supervision, so young people have the conditions to buy in large quantities.
In December 2021, the State Drug Administration will convert a certain cough syrup from an over-the-counter drug to a prescription drug.
However, the reporter from Banyuetan found in the interview that there are still loopholes in the current prescription drug management, and some teenagers buy the drug in large quantities without a prescription through offline or online pharmacies.
Xiaoyan said that he suffers from chronic pneumonia and often needs to buy antibiotics online, and each purchase is a large box. There is no limit on the quantity for each purchase. You only need to fill in your ID number and register your medical history.
A reporter from Banyuetan asked how to buy 100 boxes of a certain cough syrup on the online drug sales platform. The customer service said that the purchase of this type of medicine needs to be registered, and each order is 5 boxes, and 20 consecutive purchases are enough.
The reporter went to a pharmacy in Hunnan District, Shenyang City, and when he ordered several prescription drugs to buy, the clerk only asked for registration, and did not ask whether he had a prescription from a hospital or a doctor.
Wang Heqiu, Chief Physician of Zhejiang Mental Health Center, said that in addition to relying on law enforcement agencies to find out the phenomenon of medical drug abuse, it largely relies on data reported by medical institutions. At the same time, families do not pay enough attention to their mental health problems.
Based on this estimate, the actual drug abuse situation may be heavier than the data held by medical institutions.
To solve drug abuse, we need to "manage drugs" + "humanize people"
According to the interviewed experts, my country has established a nationwide drug abuse monitoring system, which focuses on potential new drugs and drug abuse through grass-roots "sentinels" such as psychiatric hospitals and general hospitals.
Shi Jie, executive deputy director of the China Institute of Drug Dependence at Peking University, believes that multi-level supervision should be strengthened since the launch of psychoactive medical drugs to detect abuse in a timely manner. network regulation.
For online sales of prescription drugs, the "Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Drug Online Sales" that will come into effect on December 1, 2022 clearly requires that the online sales of prescription drugs implement a real-name system. Before passing the prescription review, information such as instruction sheets must not be displayed, and services related to the purchase of prescription drugs must not be provided. At the same time, it is required to implement the relevant responsibilities of drug business entities and third-party sales platforms.
Sun Jijun suggested that a more complete real-time, efficient, online and offline dynamic monitoring and early warning system be established, comprehensive monitoring and key population monitoring go hand in hand, real-time detection of new substances of abuse and their extent, and control as soon as possible.
A number of front-line doctors and professionals involved in the treatment of drug abuse among adolescents also called for the prevention and treatment of drug abuse to focus on "people" rather than "drugs", so as to reverse the neglected plight of adolescents in mental distress.
Sun Jijun said that drug dependence withdrawal takes about one month, but psychological withdrawal takes two to three months to half a year. During this period, if it is induced by various factors, it may become dependent again, so it is necessary to consolidate psychological treatment.
Wang Heqiu pointed out that the high difficulty and high cost of drug dependence treatment has made it a general consensus that "prevention is better than cure" for drug abuse.
Shi Jie believes that in the future, before some "addiction high-risk groups" fall into the irreversible "first bite", early detection and early intervention will be realized. This early intervention requires technical institutions to take the lead and form a linkage mechanism. Health and other departments form a joint force.
In addition, industry insiders call for raising public awareness of the dangers of drug abuse and reducing unnecessary purchases and use.
Liu Hao suggested that the scope of abused drugs is wider than that of drugs, and the drug regulatory department still needs to find a suitable path and method for how to better carry out preventive publicity to young people.
Half Moon Talk Reporter: Huang Xiao, Deng Nanwu, Jiangmin, Zhang Yifei
This article is the content of the 24th issue of "Half Moon Talk" in 2022