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About 20 percent of U.S. teens exchange prescription drugs such as antibiotics and allergy medications with friends, a practice that can be dangerous and potentially deadly, warns a new study.

For example, a teen who’s taking the acne medication Accutane — which has been linked to birth defects — may give some to a friend who is pregnant but doesn’t yet realize it, the researchers said.

They interviewed 592 adolescents, aged 12 to 17, and asked them if they’d ever “borrowed” or “loaned” a prescription drug. If so, the teens were asked what kind(s) of drugs were exchanged, if they gave or received any warnings or instructions with the medications, and about outcomes.

Besides finding that about a fifth of those surveyed had swapped a prescription medication with a friend, the study also found that almost a third of teens who took a “borrowed” prescription didn’t tell their doctor. That type of situation can lead to unforeseen drug interactions, according to lead author Richard Goldsworthy, director for research and development at Academic Edge, Inc. and colleagues.

“Other researchers have studied people selling prescription drugs, but we looked at people with good intentions, trying, for instance, to help a friend who lacked money or transportation for a doctor’s visit,” co-author Chris Mayhorn, an associate professor of psychology at North Carolina State University, said in a news release from the Center for the Advancement of Health.

The study appears online in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

The findings are important “for physicians, prevention coalitions, school counselors, parents and the youth themselves,” Melissa Haddow, director of the Community Partnership of the Ozarks, said in the news release.

Previous studies found that almost 40 percent of U.S. adults “loan” or “borrow” prescription drugs.

Women who have a mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer seem have a similar quality of life in the long term whether they have breast reconstruction surgery or not, a research review suggests.

Many women who undergo mastectomy have breast reconstruction performed, either at the same time as the mastectomy or at a later point. Breast reconstruction is generally thought to improve women’s quality of life in the long run, and some studies have suggested as much.

But in the new review, which looked at 33 studies of mastectomy patients’ own reports of their long-term well-being, researchers found that overall, women fared similarly whether or not they had reconstruction.

Of 11 studies of quality of life — measured by factors like physical functioning, emotional well-being and social life — seven found no differences, on average, between women who had reconstruction and those who did not.

Similarly, nine of 16 studies on body image showed no clear differences — including each of the three studies the researchers deemed to be “higher-quality.”

And of 12 studies that looked at sexual functioning, seven found no differences, while the rest were split; in two, women who had undergone reconstruction reported poorer sexual functioning than those who had not opted for the procedure.

Researchers led by Dr. Clara Lee, of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, report the findings in the Journal of American College of Surgery.

The results point to average differences between women who chose to have or not have breast reconstruction, and they do not necessarily predict how any one woman will fare. Many factors, Lee’s team writes, can affect a woman’s satisfaction with reconstruction.

The researchers also point out that women who choose breast reconstruction may differ from those who do not in terms of quality of life, body image, and sexuality, which could affect how they perceived and reported the effects of reconstruction.

Finally, none of the studies looked at the “appropriateness” of patients’ decisions to have breast reconstruction. Some women, for example, might have undergone reconstruction even if they were not convinced they truly wanted it — something that could affect their long-term satisfaction with the choice.

The expression “like mother, like daughter” appears to hold true when it comes to raising children.

Women are more likely than men to follow the parenting practices of their mothers, a generational study has found.

Ohio State University researchers analyzed survey results from 1,133 young parents who were asked how often they spanked their children in the past week, how often they showed their children physical affection and praised them in the past week, and how often they read to their child in the past month. The participants of this study were chosen from a group whose own parents had been part of a nationwide survey that began in 1979.

For all three behaviors — spanking children, giving physical affection/praise, and reading to children — women closely followed what their mothers did. This was not the case among men, the study authors found.

“We were surprised that mothers seem to learn a lot about the parenting role from their own mothers, but fathers don’t follow their mothers as much,” study co-author Jonathan Vespa, a doctoral student in sociology, said in a news release from the university.

“There was good reason to expect that fathers would have learned parenting from their mothers,” Vespa explained. “These fathers were growing up in the [1970s and 1980s] and received much of their parenting from their mothers. Although more women were entering the workforce then, they still did the lion’s share of parenting and child care,” he added.

“We really need to learn a lot more about how fathers learn to parent,” Vespa said.

As for generational parenting practices, the researchers found significant changes with much more reading and affection shown to children today, and less spanking.

“While parents, particularly women, are learning many parenting practices from their mothers, there [are] also a lot of new practices they are picking up from the broader culture,” Vespa said.

The findings were to be presented this week at the American Sociological Association annual meeting, in San Francisco.