Alcohol Problems in Adolescents and Young Adults

Alcohol continues to be the substance of choice for today’s youth, leading to serious physical, psychological, and social consequences. Alcohol Problems in Adolescents and Young Adults ably addresses this growing trend. The latest entry in the Recent Developments in Alcoholism series, it comprehensively presents a wide-ranging clinical picture of teen drinking - epidemiology, neurobiology, behavioral phenomena, diagnostic and assessment issues, prevention and treatment data - in a developmental context. Fifty expert contributors display the scientific rigor, practical wisdom, and nuanced analysis that readers have come to expect from previous volumes.

Among the subjects studied in depth:

- Initiation of alcohol use/abuse

- Risk and protective factors for alcohol dependence

- High-risk adolescent populations

- Drinking habits of college students

- Long-range consequences of teenage drinking

- Family-, school-, and community-based prevention programs

- Treatment of comorbid substance and psychiatric disorders

Clinicians, researchers, and policy makers will find this a bedrock source of evidence-based knowledge, whether one’s goal is choosing an age-appropriate assessment tool for eighth graders, preventing drinking among high school students, or understanding the alcohol-friendliness of campus culture. Here is a critical resource for all professionals dedicated to helping youngsters grow up sober.

• Adolescence
• assessment
• diagnosis
• neurobiology
• youth

"The preface to Alcohol Problems in Adolescents and Young Adults states, 'Adolescence is already challenging. The addition of alcohol has only made it more so.' What follows is an excellent review of alcohol abuse and dependence problems in young men and women....The book provides a comprehensive assessment of alcohol problems among adolescents and young adults, and it enhances our fund of information concerning the diagnosis, treatment, and ultimately prevention of alcohol problems in this vulnerable population."

Jack H. Mendelson, M.D., New England Journal of Medicine, May 25, 2006

"The mix of theory and research in these chapters underscores the influence of the two organizations responsible for this series. Theory informs the presented research in a way that will please both the person who likes to consider cuases and the person who likes to see results. The writing is clear and straightforward, with little jargon or minutia. Even the neurological section is accessible to the relatively physiologically naive reader."

Joan B. Reed in PsycCRITIQUES, June 21, 2006, Vol. 51 (25), Article 13

• New York University School of Medicine, New York

  Marc Galanter