Increasingly, teenagers and preteens are stressed out by the expectations of society and overwhelmed by the constant bombardment of information.

As a result, more doctors are prescribing anti-anxiety and sleep medication to kids as young as 12 to help them cope. A new University of Michigan study has found that adolescent prescription drug users are more prone to abuse those drugs.

According to the study from the university’s school of nursing, over the last decade there has been an upward trend in the prescribing of anti-anxiety drugs such as Klonopin, Xanax, and Ativan and the sleep medications Ambien, Restoril and Lunesta to youth between the ages of 12 and 18.

Nearly 9 percent of the 2,745 teenagers that participated in the university study received a prescription for anxiety or sleep medications during their lifetime, and more than 3 percent received at least one prescription during the three-year study period.

The study collected information from students between 2009 and 2012 at five different schools in the Detroit area. The schools were in varying communities — rural, urban, and suburban — the researchers said.

The study found that as a larger number of teens are using these prescriptions pills, there also has been an increase in the misuse of those drugs, said Carol J. Boyd, health behavior and biological sciences professor at Michigan.

The study shows that teens prescribed anxiety or sleep medications are up to 12 times more likely to abuse them than those who never had a prescription. When a young patient’s prescription ends, many will use someone else’s prescription pills to get high or experiment, said Ms. Boyd who also teaches at the university’s Addiction Research Center in the Department of Psychiatry.

“The medical community is exposing our kids to drugs with addictive potential and they are not educating parents, so when the prescriptions run out [the kids] are getting them from friends because they like the feeling,” Ms. Boyd said.

Other key findings in the university study were that white students were twice as likely as black students to use other people’s medication, and females older than 15 and teens who had prescriptions for longer periods of time were more likely to abuse the medications.

It appears that by prescribing these anti-anxiety and sleep medications to adolescents doctors and psychiatrists may be creating a new generation of illegal, recreational drug users. “Sharing these medications is a felony,” Ms. Boyd said.

Ken Miller, a clinical director of Harbor Youth and Family Services in Toledo, agreed that teenagers often give their prescription medications to others.

“Kids will share. They think they are helping each other out,” he said.

Therapists and psychiatrists rarely use drugs alone to treat adolescents with anxiety or sleep issues. They typically try other techniques first to help kids learn to calm themselves and change their behavior, but some teenagers need a combination of drugs and coping skills to help them manage as those work through therapy, Mr. Miller said.

“It’s very messy being human and it takes a lot of work, but everyone wants the quick fix they want the pills,” he said.

Some parents, who are often stressed themselves, ask for their teens to receive medication because they don’t have time to get them to multiple therapy sessions or their child is acting out, Mr. Miller said.

"The parents are overwhelmed and frustrated and want an instant solution," he said

He said teenagers and parents in the United States are suffering from a desire to achieve perfection. Parents want their child to be the greatest dancer, to hit the most home runs, and get the best grades, but this unrealistic goal of "perfectionism" is leading to higher levels of anxiety and depression, Mr. Miller said.

"Kids feel the pressure of always being compared and tested. They are told if they are going to get ahead in life they have to be bigger, faster, and stronger. Kids just get so overwhelmed," he said.

Ms. Boyd also said societal and parental expectations for kids to succeed are at an all time high.

"I didn't study for the ACT. I didn't go to prep classes. I don't even think I knew the scoring system until after I took the test," she said, whereas now kids start worrying about college before they even get to high school.

Social media, video games, and the constant accessibility of cell phones adds another layer of stress and is making it difficult for some kids to sleep well at night, Mr. Miller said.

"Now everything is so instantaneous and information is flooding in from everywhere. So the kids need to learn relaxation therapy. They are just drowning in a sea of information," he said.

He added that kids are also consuming high levels of caffeine through sodas and energy drinks which can also make it difficult for them to sleep.

Though she recognizes the importance of these medications as one component in treating adolescents for anxiety and sleep problems, Ms. Boyd said she is disturbed by the number of these prescriptions being given out. Anxiety and sleep medications can be addictive or even fatal when mixed with narcotics or alcohol, she said.

She advises parents to be aware that their child will be asked by friends or other family members to share their pills. She also suggest that parents stay in firm control of the medication by dosing them out to the child.

"This is sometimes harder with older kids but you should be counting the pills and keeping track," she said.

Parents can also take steps to regain control of the devices their teens are using. Mr. Miller said parents need to stop trying to please society and their children and make kids work to earn time to use their smart phones or computers.

Contact Marlene Harris-Taylor at mtaylor@theblade.com or 419-724-6091.

First Published February 16, 2015, 5:00 a.m.