Differences according to sex
Studies suggest that it is more likely to prescribe a prescription medication which may be abused – particularly narcotics and antianxiety drugs – a woman than a man. In some cases, the probability is 48 percent higher.
In general, both men and women have roughly similar rates of nonmedical use of prescription drugs. There is an exception in the group of adolescents aged 12 to 17 years. In this group, is more likely to be women more than men who use drugs for nonmedical reasons psychotherapy. In addition, research has shown that women and men who use prescription opioids are equally likely to become addicted. However, among women and men who use either a depressant, an anti-anxiety drug, or hypnotic, women are almost twice as likely to become addicted.
Data from the National Household Survey on 
The Monitoring the Future Study 1999 showed that in the case of barbiturates, tranquilizers and narcotics other than heroin, long-term decline in use among young adults in the eighties was leveled in the early nineties, with small increases again between the middle and late nineties. For example, the use of 
It is possible that misuse of 
In 1999 about 9 million people age 12 and older used 
