Mood Altering Drug Abuse: The Perceptions of Middle Age Women concerning the Use and Abuse of Prescription Drugs

Abstract

This paper reports a segment of findings from a statewide study of the incidence and characteristics of prescription and non-prescription drug use among middle-aged, middle-class females in Florida. The report focuses on perceptions of this littlestudied target population concerning the use and abuse of prescription mood-altering drugs as well as their perceptions of their community's drug abuse treatment and prevention programs. In depth interviews were conducted in homes with a purposive sample of 68 women in Tallahassee. Reliability and validity data on instrumentation are described. Sample demographics are reported, and abusers, users, and drug non-users are compared on responses given to perception questions. Implications of the findings for media campaigns are discussed.