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Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse Disorders

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Substance and Non-Substance Related Addictions

Abstract

Understanding, defining, and treating adolescent substance abuse is uniquely challenging. Until very recently there was limited reliable information on substance use disorders in this population. Child and adolescent medical research has always lagged behind similar studies in adults because of the ethical concerns involved in conducting experiments with this protected population. Historically, research into adolescent substance abuse was hindered further by ineffective diagnostic criteria which were designed to identify and diagnose substance abuse in adults. The implications of untreated substance use disorders in adolescence have last effects on both the individual and the greater community. While meaningful advances are being made in the diagnosis and treatment of adolescent substance use disorders, national survey data suggest that this issue is worsening rather than improving. Substance abuse that starts in adolescence and continues into adulthood is associated with both an increased morbidity and mortality for the individual and places a greater burden on the community. This chapter discusses the recent changes to the current diagnostic criteria for substance use disorders and how these changes hope to be more representative of the adolescent substance abuser. It also examines environmental and genetic risk factors for substance abuse, common psychiatric comorbidities, the effects of substance use on the developing brain, diagnostic methods, and current evidence-based treatments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, St. Roanoke, VA, USA

    Jeffery J. Wilson & Michael Ferguson

Authors
  1. Jeffery J. Wilson
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  2. Michael Ferguson
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA

    Evaristo Akerele

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Wilson, J.J., Ferguson, M. (2022). Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse Disorders. In: Akerele, E. (eds) Substance and Non-Substance Related Addictions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84834-7_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84834-7_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-84833-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-84834-7

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