Prevalence Of Substance Abuse Among US Teens

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Main Category: Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs
Article Date: 06 Nov 2007 - 0:00 PDT

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About fifteen per cent of teenagers had positive results on a substance abuse screening test when they came in for routine outpatient medical care in a primary care network in New England, USA, says an article in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine (JAMA/Archives), November issue.

They explain "According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, addiction is a chronic disease with genetic, environmental and behavioral factors contributing to its cause, manifestations and natural history."

Adolescent addiction can generally predict future addictive disorders. Addiction tends to start during a person's teenage years. "Substance use is associated with the leading causes of death among U.S. teenagers: unintentional injuries, homicides and suicides," the authors write.

Substance abuse is also closely linked to conduct disorder, unplanned sexual activity and depression.

John R. Knight, M.D., Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston, and team carried out a substance abuse screening test which included six questions focused on the use of alcohol and/or other drugs and risky behavior. 2,133 people aged 12-18 took part while they received outpatient medical care during the period March 2003 - August 2005. 56.3% of them were female while 48.6% were male non-Hispanic whites. The majority were from middle to upper middle class families. 43.5 percent reported any use of alcohol or other drugs and 24.1 percent reported impaired driving risk during their lifetimes.

According to the questionnaires' findings, 14.8% of them screened positive for substance abuse. 29.5% were tested at school-based health centers, 24.2% at rural family practices, 16.6% at adolescent clinics, 14.1% at health maintenance organizations, while 8% were tested at pediatric clinics. 23.2% of those who had gone to see their doctors because they were ill screened positive for substance abuse, compared to 7.1% of those who had gone in for well-child care visits.

The authors concluded "Given the pressures of time on primary care providers, more research is needed on efficient and effective office-based systems for substance abuse screening and therapeutic interventions. Early identification and intervention of adolescent substance use presents the greatest opportunity for reducing the burden of addictive disorders later in life."

"Substance abuse screening should occur whenever the opportunity arises, not at well-child care visits only."
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2007;161(11):1035-1041
http://archpedi.ama-assn.org

Written by׃ Christian Nordqvist
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