Pediatrics in Review
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(Pediatrics in Review. 1985;7:133-139.)
© 1985 American Academy of Pediatrics
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Identifying and Coping With a Drug-Using Adolescent: Some Guidelines for Pediatricians and Parents

Richard H. Schwartz MD1
Peter R. Cohen MD2
Glenn O. Bair MD3
 1 Clinical Associate Professor of Child Health and Development, Department of Pediatrics, Academic Pediatrics, Children's Hospital National Medical Center, Washington, DC, and Medical Director, Straight Inc, Adolescent Drug Treatment Program, Springfield, VA.
2 Director, Closed Adolescent Unit, Psychiatric Institute, Montgomery County, Maryland, Rockville
3 Topeka, KS.

The use of alcohol and drugs by American adolescents is a problem of epidemic proportions. Adults must consider repetitive psychoactive drug use by an adolescent as a possible cause of problem behavior, academic underachievement, chronic apathy, episodes of running away, serious accidents, and suicide attempts, regardless of the adolescent's family or social background. Parents must learn to be courageous enough to seek help to define the cause of such behavior, and the physicians to whom they turn must be knowledgeable of the diagnosis and management of a drug-using adolescent. The purpose of this paper is to provide information to help the pediatrician understand frequent drug use; its behavioral, social, emotional, and physical consequences for both the user and family; and to help affected families take an active role in the management of their drug-using adolescents.

FOUR PHASES OF CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY

Chemical dependency (an increasingly preferred term for compulsive use of mood-altering drugs) is an illness with psychosocial, spiritual, ethical, emotional, and physical components. It may occur in four stages of progressive severity: (1) experimentation—learning the euphoric "high;" (2) actively seeking drug-induced euphoria; (3) preoccupation with the self-perceived need to get "high" in order to cope with life's stresses. Usually, tolerance to the effects of the drug occurs, leading to use of larger quantities or "stronger" drugs to achieve the desired degree of euphoria;




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Committee on Substance Abuse
Alcohol Use and Abuse: A Pediatric Concern
Pediatrics, July 1, 2001; 108(1): 185 - 189.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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