Beyond abuse and exposure: framing the impact of prescription-medication sharing.
OBJECTIVE
We sought to document the frequency, circumstances, and consequences of prescription medication-sharing behaviors and to use a medication-sharing impact framework to organize the resulting data regarding medication-loaning and -borrowing practices.


METHODS
One-on-one interviews were conducted in 2006, and participants indicated (1) prescription medicine taken in the past year, (2) whether they had previously loaned or borrowed prescription medicine, (3) scenarios in which they would consider loaning or borrowing prescription medicine, and (4) the types of prescription medicines they had loaned or borrowed.


RESULTS
Of the 700 participants, 22.9% reported having loaned their medications to someone else and 26.9% reported having borrowed someone else's prescription. An even greater proportion of participants reported situations in which medication sharing was acceptable to them.


CONCLUSIONS
Sharing prescription medication places individuals at risk for diverse consequences, and further research regarding medication loaning and borrowing behaviors and their associated consequences is merited.
Goldsworthy
Richard C
RC
Research & Development, Academic Edge Inc, 108 E 14th St, Bloomington, IN 47408, USA. rick@academicedge.com
Schwartz
Nancy C
NC
Mayhorn
Christopher B
CB
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D011307:Drug Prescriptions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States
D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations