研究發現：互聯網普及與處方藥濫用呈正相關

Could increasing Internet use help explain the recent surge in prescription drug misuse in the US? That's the hypothesis put forth by a new study published in Health Affairs。

Between 1997 and 2007, Americans' household access to the Internet went from 18 percent to 61 percent; between 1999 and 2003, online sales of prescription drugs grew from $160 million to $3.2 billion。

In the new study, researchers compared states' growth in high-speed Internet access with their rates of admission to rehabs for problems associated with prescription drugs。

"In general, for every 10 percent increase in Internet use, what we're seeing is a one percent increase in admission to treatment facilities for the most commonly prescribed drugs, things like painkillers and stimulants," says lead author Dana Goldman at the University of Southern California。

Dana thinks the link is likely to be causal. "One of the things that gives me a lot confidence in that is that we looked at the relationships with drugs that you can't really get on Internet like heroin. When you replicate the [findings] using heroin, you don't find any association [with increased Internet use] and the same is true with cocaine and alcohol," Dana says。在美國，互聯網使用和處方藥濫用呈正相關？《衛生事務》刊登的一項最新研究提出了這一假設。

1997年至2007年間，美國家庭上網率從18%升至61%，而從1999年到2003年，在線非處方藥的銷售額從1億6千萬美元增長值32億美元。

研究中，研究人員將互聯網的快速普及同提供處方藥解決相關疾病的在線網點登錄比率做了比較。

“總體來說，互聯網使用每擴大10%，可提供最常見處方藥(如止痛劑和興奮劑)的網點登陸比率就增加了1%，”來自男加利福尼亞大學的首席研究人員丹娜說道。

丹娜認爲這種聯繫並非偶然。“這當中有一點讓我信心百倍，那就是我們研究了一些人們無法在網上買到的藥品同社會的關係，比如海洛因。當把實驗對象換成海洛因重新研究時，我們並沒有發現互聯網普及和海洛因使用有什麼關聯，這種不相關對於可卡因和酒精同樣適用，”丹娜說道。