NCJ Number
182913
Journal
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs Volume: 32 Issue: 1 Dated: January-March 2000 Pages: 67-79
Date Published
2000
Length
13 pages
Annotation
Researchers and clinicians are focusing increasing attention on the role of deviant social behavior and disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs) in substance use disorders (SUDs); this article summarizes what is currently known about SUD-DBD comorbidity in adolescents and what SUD-DBD comorbidity means for assessment, treatment, and prevention of SUDs in adolescents.
Abstract
Findings show the DBDs in the form of conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and/or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder are found in a majority of adolescents with substance use disorders. These disorders influence the risk for and the course of substance use disorders in adolescents and potentially provide important targets for intervention. Interventions such as family therapy and multisystemic therapy can focus on important environmental factors that help to produce and sustain substance use, related problems, and disruptive/deviant social behavior. Researchers and clinicians are increasingly using multimodal approaches that involve several psychosocial approaches in addition to medication, if indicated. Because both DBDs and SUDs are often the result of a confluence of multiple individual, family, peer, and community risk factors, interventions must be of adequate duration and intensity to promote and sustain change. 41 references