States that have seen the greatest expansion of high-speed Internet access also have seen the largest increases in admission to treatment facilities for prescription drug misuse, according to a study published in the journal Health Affairs, Reuters reports (Krasny, Reuters, 5/12).
For the study, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Southern California used the Federal Communications Commission's high-speed Internet deployment database to examine Internet access among states between 2000 and 2007.
They also looked at data from the same time period on substance misuse treatment admissions from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Key Findings
Researchers found that a 10% increase in the availability of high-speed Internet service was associated with about a 1% increase in admissions to a treatment facility for prescription drug misuse (Fleming, "Health Affairs Blog," Health Affairs, 5/12).
The study also found that use of heroin, cocaine, alcohol and substances not sold over the Internet rose minimally or fell during the same period.
Implications
Dana Goldman -- one of the study's authors and director of the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at USC -- said the findings "suggest that Internet growth may partly explain the increase in prescription drug abuse, since it is well know that these drugs are easily available online."
Illegal online pharmacies, many of which are located outside the U.S., often use mass e-mail solicitations to market prescription narcotics, including painkillers, sedatives, stimulants and other addictive drugs. Researchers speculate that the recent rise in prescription drug misuse directly corresponds with the increase of such pharmacies (Reuters, 5/12).