The 67,000-person study shows that more than 15.2 million people in the US admitted taking a prescription drug for non-medical reasons in 2008, compared with 16.3 in 2007.

Although the survey doesn’t discuss why rates of abuse rise and fall, part of the drop may be attributable to a nationwide media campaign aimed at alerting parents to the potential abuse of prescription medicines.

Robert Denniston, director of the National Youth Anti-Drug Campaign, a program run out of the drug control program in the White House, says it’s always hard to "unravel all the multiple factors" that contribute to why people abuse prescription medicines and other drugs.

But he says a push by the federal government and a host of anti-drug organizations and local communities to alert parents about the potential perils of giving kids easy access to prescription drugs is having an impact.

One effective advertisement, Denniston says, ran during the Super Bowl. It featured a drug dealer outside a store bemoaning the loss of all his customers. “It seems like half my customers they don’t even need me any more, ya’ know, I mean they are getting high for free, outta’ the medicine cabinets," the man says. "How am I supposed to compete with that?"

While prescription drug abuse rates have dropped, others haven’t. The survey, conducted by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, shows that marijuana smoking rates for teenagers held steady and the number of LSD and Ecstasy users continue to climb.

The survey also shows that the rate of abuse of pain relievers, which include commonly taken drugs such as Tylenol, dropped year over year. However, the percentage of patients taking the powerful painkiller Oxycontin increased, said Joe Gfroerer, a statistician with SAMHSA.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been working with drug companies to create mechanisms that make it harder for the medicines like Oxycontin and Tylenol to be abused.

Pain medication “very slowly and subtly reawakens addiction,” Pinsky said. “I’m not saying it was inappropriately prescribed, I’m saying he didn’t know the risks.”

DJ AM (or Adam Goldstein), 36, was found dead in his apartment, along with a crack pipe and prescription pills. Goldstein and musician Travis Barker were the only two survivors of a plane crash last September, and Goldstein’s burns required two skin graft surgeries, and Pinsky believes the anti-anxiety and pain medication Goldstein took as a result of the crash reawakened his addiction to drugs. Goldstein had openly discussed his former addiction to drugs, including crack cocaine and Ecstasy.

A medical examiner’s office spokeswoman said Saturday that toxicology tests, expected to take weeks, are needed to determine what killed Goldstein. An autopsy Saturday was inconclusive, said the spokeswoman, Ellen Borakove.

Goldstein was to debut his own show centering on rehab in October on MTV called "Gone Too Far," featuring Goldstein staging interventions with young people battling their own addictions. MTV said it has not decided on the show’s future.

In an interview with The Associated Press last month to promote the show, Goldstein said that it was terrifying watching people go through harrowing addictions and it made him recall his own battles.

"I am a recovering drug addict. When I see it and I’m in their room and the paraphernalia and the whole lifestyle and everything, I still, 11 years later, have that little thing in my head that starts thinking, ‘Oh, where’s that? I wonder what that is?’"

Pinsky recalled how when Crazytown’s Seth "Shifty" Binzer, a former patient on "Celebrity Rehab," was going through his recovery process, Pinksy urged him to reach out to DJ AM, who was a former member of the defunct band, to help learn how to stay sober.

"He was someone I referred people to learn about recovery," said Pinsky, which is why he finds the circumstances of his death so shocking. "It was so much of a surprise I have a hard time believing it."
 

In 2007, an estimated 23.2 million people were in need of treatment for alcohol or illicit drug abuse. Of this number, only 3.9 million people nationwide received treatment. Some didn’t seek help due to the shame they feel about their addiction or not knowing enough about the services that are available.

While substance abuse numbers in men have decreased slightly, the numbers for women are increasing, especially with regard to alcohol. This can be attributed to the fact that more women are rising to the top in their profession, facing more of the work and social challenges that previously mostly involved men.

If you or someone you know is struggling with a substance abuse disorder, encourage them to seek help. September presents an opportunity to face this treatable disease and join the voices of recovery.