Depiction of prescription-pill abuse by teens is legit

The premise: Charlie Bartlett (played by Anton Yelchin) has been kicked out of several private schools before he enrolls in a public high school. He sets himself up as the resident "psychiatrist," dispensing advice and prescription drugs from a stall in the boy's bathroom. Charlie obtains these medicines (which include the antidepressant Zoloft, the antianxiety pill Xanax and the stimulant Ritalin) by first reading up on psychiatric diagnoses and then feigning the classic symptoms on visits to a psychiatrist, who prescribes them. Charlie treats his fellow students for conditions that include depression and panic attacks and, at one point, dispenses Ritalin at a party, causing his fellow students to become excited and uninhibited (the girls remove their blouses). But fellow student Kip Crombwell (Mark Rendall) overdoses on Charlie's sedatives and has to have his stomach pumped (vomiting is induced and charcoal administered to absorb the drugs) in the ER. Soon afterward, Charlie reforms his behavior.

The medical questions: How common is prescription drug abuse among teens? Where do most kids get the drugs? Does Ritalin, a stimulant, remove inhibitions? Do most teens who abuse or misuse prescription drugs grow out of it or is this behavior predictive of drug dependency for adults?

The reality: The growing abuse of prescription drugs among America's youth has been well-documented. About 2.1 million teens abused prescription drugs in 2005, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. One out of five high school seniors used prescription drugs for nonmedical reasons over the last year, according to Partnership for a Drug-Free America. And the number of teens going into treatment for prescription drug abuse of pain medication has increased by more than 300% during the last 10 years, says the federal Drug and Alcohol Services Information System.

Rachel Gonzales, an addiction researcher at UCLA, says many teens obtain the pills by feigning symptoms for physicians. Others get them through the Internet, by filching from other members of their family or from their peers.

The effects of antidepressants and antianxiety medications are described accurately in the film. Charlie's friends appear to be depressed and anxious, suffering from social anxiety, rejections and peer pressure. But without a physician's guidance, overdoses such as Kip's can happen easily.