Presented at the 2013 AAPM Annual Meeting « Back

WAKE UP!— A Program Developed to Stop Teen Rx Drug Abuse

Lora L Brown, MD, drbrown@wakeupnow.org¹, (1) WAKE UP!, Lake Mary, Florida

Introduction: Prescription drug abuse among teens is an epidemic. The nonmedical use of prescription drugs is the fastest growing drug problem in the United States, ahead of cocaine, heroin, and meth, with a cost of over $72 billion to the US each year. (1, 2) The prescription drug abuse crisis in the United States is related to the common misperceptions that prescription drugs are safe because they are legal and prescribed by physicians. (3) The teen brain continues to develop until the mid twenties. Because of that teenagers have a significantly greater risk of addiction. WAKE UP!, created by The Pain Truth, a 501(c)3 charitable organization, was developed to prevent first-time use of prescription drugs among teens, while simultaneously educating the general population and healthcare providers. Materials and Methods: WAKE UP! is a grassroots, educational effort to arm teens with the knowledge to make better decisions when confronted with opportunities to abuse prescription drugs. WAKE UP! also incorporates community involvement through media, contests, youth activities, physician education, social media, an interactive website, and a town hall meeting. Program success is measured utilizing a survey developed and evaluated by an independent third party. Results: Success of WAKE UP! is evidenced by positive change in student knowledge as well as behavior and attitude evaluations. Final results with statistical evaluation will be included in final poster. Discussion: WAKE UP! is a unique prevention program, because it is sustainable and empowers youth with facts that arm them when confronted with opportunity to abuse drugs. References: 1) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 01-2012 2) Office of National Drug Control Policy, 04-2012 3) National Institute of Drug Abuse, 07-2011.

Funding: A grant was received from Millennium Laboratories to fund the initial launch of this program.