Youth And Substance Use

Estimates indicate that as many as 1 in 4 Americans will experience a mental health problem or will misuse alcohol or drugs in their lifetimes. These disorders are among the most highly stigmatized health conditions in the United States, and they remain barriers to full participation in society in areas as basic as education, housing, and employment. Improving the lives of people with mental health and substance abuse disorders has been a priority in the United States for more than 50 years. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 is considered a major turning point in America's efforts to improve behavioral healthcare. It ushered in an era of optimism and hope and laid the groundwork for the consumer movement and new models of recovery. The consumer movement gave voice to people with mental and substance use disorders and brought their perspectives and experience into national discussions about mental health. However over the same 50-year period, positive change in American public attitudes and beliefs about mental and substance use disorders has lagged behind these advances. Stigma is a complex social phenomenon based on a relationship between an attribute and a stereotype that assigns undesirable labels, qualities, and behaviors to a person with that attribute. Labeled individuals are then socially devalued, which leads to inequality and discrimination. This report contributes to national efforts to understand and change attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that can lead to stigma and discrimination. Changing stigma in a lasting way will require coordinated efforts, which are based on the best possible evidence, supported at the national level with multiyear funding, and planned and implemented by an effective coalition of representative stakeholders. Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders: The Evidence for Stigma Change explores stigma and discrimination faced by individuals with mental or substance use disorders and recommends effective strategies for reducing stigma and encouraging people to seek treatment and other supportive services. It offers a set of conclusions and recommendations about successful stigma change strategies and the research needed to inform and evaluate these efforts in the United States.

This volume reviews a range of empirically supported approaches to prevention and treatment of adolescent substance use problems. The focus is on motivationally based brief interventions that can be delivered in a variety of contexts, that address key developmental considerations, and that draw on cutting-edge knowledge on addictive behavior change. From expert contributors, coverage encompasses alcohol skills training; integrative behavioral and family therapy; motivational interviewing; interventions for dually diagnosed youth; Internet-based education, prevention, and treatment; and applications to HIV prevention. The volume is extensively referenced and includes numerous clinical illustrations and vignettes.

All across the United States, individuals, families, communities, and health care systems are struggling to cope with substance use, misuse, and substance use disorders. Substance misuse and substance use disorders have devastating effects, disrupt the future plans of too many young people, and all too often, end lives prematurely and tragically. Substance misuse is a major public health challenge and a priority for our nation to address. The effects of substance use are cumulative and costly for our society, placing burdens on workplaces, the health care system, families, states, and communities. The Report discusses opportunities to bring substance use disorder treatment and mainstream health care systems into alignment so that they can address a person's overall health, rather than a substance misuse or a physical health condition alone or in isolation. It also provides suggestions and recommendations for action that everyone-individuals, families, community leaders, law enforcement, health care professionals, policymakers, and researchers-can take to prevent substance misuse and reduce its consequences.

Multiple Problem Youth addresses the complex connections among drug abuse, delinquency, and mental health problems as they apply to adolescents and young adults. Interrelationships in this area exist in a vast variety of ways, further complicated by extraneous factors such as demographics, sex, and time. The authors incorporate these factors and analyze the correlations among substance use, delinquency, and mental health problems, as well as discussing developmental patterns and reviewing theories of deviant behavior.

The editor and authors of Youth Substance Abuse and Co-occurring Disorders take an applied approach that serves the needs of clinicians, clinical researchers, and students in the fields of mental health, public health, and medicine (pediatrics, family medicine, and child and adolescent psychiatry, in particular). While the population of adolescents with SUD possesses diverse clinical characteristics, 70%--80% manifest comorbid psychopathology, known also as co-occurring disorders or dual diagnosis -- that is, the presence of one or more comorbid psychiatric disorders in addition to SUDs. These comorbidities can greatly complicate assessment and treatment, and this book provides clinicians with not only the theory behind the various approaches to SUD but also the practical knowledge that is essential to understand and treat psychiatric comorbidity in these adolescents. Some of the most prominent investigators in the field have contributed scholarly chapters to the volume, which offers a multitude of useful features: An extensive examination of the etiology of SUD, focusing on whether psychopathology may precede SUD, as in the majority of cases, develop as a consequence of preexisting SUD, or originate from a common vulnerability Consistent emphasis on future directions in clinical research and treatment advancement, which helps the reader identify critical gaps in understanding the relationship between SUD and psychiatric comorbidity among youth Thorough, state-of-the art chapters on the developmental pathways and relationships between substance use and co-occurring psychiatric disorders, screening tools and interventions, and the full range of co-occurring disorders make the book ideal for instructional use Information on risk factors for development of SUD in adolescence, including psychiatric disorders in childhood such as disruptive behavior disorders, mood, anxiety disorders, etc. Clinically useful and scientifically rigorous, Youth Substance Abuse and Co-occurring Disorders should stimulate further discussion and advancement of the field, ultimately resulting in improved and more effective services and intervention modalities for these youth.

CSAP identified four critical predictors from childhood for substance use that could be valuable targets for prevention of adolescent substance use management of and involvement with the child, and the child's social competence, and school achievement. This book shows how seven selected prevention programs address these.

Innovations in Adolescent Substance Abuse Interventions focuses on developmentally appropriate approaches to the assessment, prevention, or treatment of substance use problems among adolescents. Organized into 16 chapters, this book begins with an assessment of adolescent substance use; theory, methods, and effectiveness of a drug abuse prevention approach; and problem behavior prevention programming for schools and community groups. Some chapters follow on the community-, family- and school-based interventions for adolescents with substance use problems. Other chapters explain psychopharmacological therapy; the assertive aftercare protocol for adolescent substance abusers; and twelve-step-based interventions for adolescents.

This new edition of Health at a Glance presents the most recent comparable data on the health status of populations and health system performance in OECD countries.