Perspective on the Role of the Pediatrician in the Management of Adolescent Drug Use
S. Kenneth Schonberg MD1
1 Director, Division of Adolescent Medicine, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center, 111 E 210th St, Bronx, NY 10467
Coincident with the incorporation of adolescent care into pediatric practice has been the emergence and appreciation of new health concerns regarding these children as they move toward adult life. Issues of depression and suicide, developing sexuality, and substance abuse are recent additions to the knowledge expected of the pediatrician. These issues are all characterized by an inherent relationship between behavior and health, where the demarcation between normative development and dysfunction is often ill-defined and confounded by legal and moral concerns. Therefore, the practitioner is required to develop not only interviewing and counseling skills appropriate to a teenage population, but also that combination of knowledge and judgment that allows for a personalized definition of normal v abnormal behavior.
