User:Morganwehnke/sandbox

https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediatrics/early/2019/01/02/peds.2018-2752.full.pdf

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https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1066480719868705?casa_token=uD0j7-5HeTQAAAAA:vQCJ_kwEhLayZahZwWSBT_c3LVsexhBho5PTP6kf9gliDzl7MLiCGAvqvTjJi6NqinpzB4qgSSNLeA

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6422350/

http://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC6446903&blobtype=pdf

Teens are also another category of people that can become easily hooked on opioids. But even before their teenage years, children go through rapid growth of their reward center, also known as the mesolimbic pathway. The development of their reward center first allows children to be easily satisfied by small rewards early on. This effect peaks in their adolescent years and they start to feel a need for larger more meaningful rewards, such as psychoactive substances to produce reward signals through direct receptor binding. Teens also have an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex which governs impulse control and decision making. The combination of an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex and a rundown reward system can lead to addictive seeking behaviors. For teens the use of opioids usually does not start as a pain management drug, teens will engage in drugs as recreational drugs. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that for every opioid death of a teen there are 119 emergency visits and 22 treatment admissions related to opioid abuse. Half a million teenagers in 2014 were reported as non medically prescribed opioid users and a third of those as having a substance use disorder (SUD).

Not only are youth at heightened risk of developing opioid addictions, but treating opioid use disorder in this population is also more difficult than it is for older individuals. A systematic review of the epidemiologic literature has found that adolescents and young adults consistently have shorter retention times in medication treatments for opioid use disorder than do older adults.

Family is widely discussed as an influence for factors affecting adolescent opioid misuse behavior and in treatment of adolescent opioid misuse. Family involvement has been shown to be effective in decreasing substance use in adolescents by addressing family risk factors that may be contributing to an adolescent’s substance use. Some of these risk factors that are contributing to the increase in popularity of opioids include easy accessibility. If family members are taking opioids for pain or have taken them in the past and did not dispose of them correctly or do not protect them properly, it can make it easy for adolescents to get their hands on them.

Education on opioid use and opioid disorders is important to keep children away from these drugs.