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Long-Term Health and Psychosocial Status of Youth who Received Substance Abuse Treatment in Adolescence

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An Erratum to this article was published on 20 October 2015

Abstract

Alcohol and substance abuse in the adolescent population is a major health concern with a number of harms known to be associated with high levels of use. Few studies report on long-term health status of youth who have received treatment for a substance abuse problem during adolescence. This study aimed to describe the long-term status of a cohort of adolescents who received treatment in an intensive day treatment program situated in a tertiary care paediatric hospital. Youth participated in an interview that collected data using both standardized screening tools (GAIN-SS, AUDIT, CUDIT, DUI) as well as closed and open ended questions about education, employment, and physical and mental health status. Young adults in this sample continue to use alcohol and cannabis, with a proportion reporting problematic use. Their academic achievement is close to expected for their age group. They report concurrent mental health disorders; and as a cohort, access the health care system for both acute and chronic health conditions more than their contemporaries. These findings support the inclusion of academic, mental health and medical components in programs for adolescents with substance abuse, in order to address a broad range of determinants of health outcomes.

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Acknowledgments

Thank you to all the young people who agreed to participate in this study. We value their time, their experiences and perspectives in contributing to our understanding of how to enhance the programs we offer. We also acknowledge the technical expertise of Dr. Lil Tonmyr, Injury and Child Maltreatment Section, Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention, Public Health Agency of Canada and Dr. Patricia Wiebe, Inter-Professional Advisory Office, Inter-Professional, Advisory and Program Support Program, First Nations and Inuit Health Branch, Health Canada.

Informed Consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5). Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

Conflict of Interest

The authors all declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Karen Leslie, Stephanie Jeanneret Manning, Catherine Maser & Bruna Brands

  2. College of Family Physicians of Canada, Mississauga, Canada

    Deirdre Snelgrove

  3. Health Canada, Ottawa, Canada

    Tiffany Thornton, Andrea Wills & Bruna Brands

Authors
  1. Karen Leslie
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  2. Stephanie Jeanneret Manning
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  3. Catherine Maser
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  4. Deirdre Snelgrove
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  5. Tiffany Thornton
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  6. Andrea Wills
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  7. Bruna Brands
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karen Leslie.

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Leslie, K., Jeanneret Manning, S., Maser, C. et al. Long-Term Health and Psychosocial Status of Youth who Received Substance Abuse Treatment in Adolescence. Int J Ment Health Addiction 14, 111–119 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-015-9585-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-015-9585-7

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