Substance Use Among Youth Reducing Health Risks Among Youth
Better understanding these factors is critical to developing prevention strategies that lessen the impact of risk factors and bolster or introduce new protective factors. NIDA funds research to identify risk and protective factors and seek ways to prevent substance misuse and substance use disorders even when multiple risk factors are present. Some people use drugs to feel pleasurable, stimulating, or relaxing effects. Young Brains Under Study While many people try drugs at some point in their lives and even continue to use them, only some people develop substance use disorders. No single factor determines whether a person will develop a substance use disorder. These chronic but treatable health conditions arise from the interplay of many different individual and societal factors across a person’s life1. One way CDC is working to address drug overdoses is to advance overdose prevention in communities across the country. In an emergency? Need treatment? PrEP reduces the risk of getting HIV from sex by about 99% when taken as prescribed. Among people who inject drugs, it reduces the risk by at least 74% when taken as prescribed. PrEP is much less effective when it isn't taken consistently. How is NIDA advancing the science on substance use prevention? There are strategies that