Adolescent Substance Abuse

Substance abuse is, and has always been, an indisputable fact of life. People – especially young people – abuse various legal and illegal substances for any number of reasons: to intensify feelings, to achieve deeper consciousness, to escape reality, to self-medicate. And as substance-abusing teenagers mature, they pose particular challenges to the professionals charged with keeping them clean and sober and helping them maintain recovery into adulthood.

Adolescent Substance Abuse: Evidence-Based Approaches to Prevention and Treatment offers clear, interdisciplinary guidance that grounds readers in the many contexts – developmental, genetic, social, and familial among them – crucial to creating effective interventions and prevention methods. Its contributors examine current findings regarding popularly used therapies, including psychopharmacology, residential treatment, school- and community-based programs, group homes, and specific forms of individual, family, and group therapy.

Accessible to a wide professional audience, this volume: (1) Presents evidence-based support for the treatment decision-making process by identifying interventions that work, might work, and don’t work. (2) Identifies individual traits associated with susceptibility to substance abuse and addiction in youth. (3) Provides a biogenetic model of the effects of drugs on the brain (and refines the concept of gateway drugs). (4) Evaluates the effectiveness of prevention programs in school and community settings. (5) Adds historical, spiritual, and legal perspectives on substance use and misuse. (6) Includes the bonus resource, the Community Prevention Handbook on Adolescent Substance Abuse and Treatment.

This volume is an all-in-one reference for counseling professionals and clinicians working with youth and families as well as program developers in state and local agencies and graduate students in counseling and prevention.

Carl Leukefeld, is Professor of Behavioral Science, Psychiatry, Oral Health Science and Social Work; Chair of the Department of Behavioral Science and Director of the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research, with a graduate appointment in Sociology. He came to the University of Kentucky in 1990 to establish the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research from the National Institute on Drug Abuse where he filled administrative and research positions. Dr. Leukefeld has published more than 200 articles, chapters, books and monographs. He currently serves on the NIH Community-Level Health Promotion Study Section and has served on the NIH/NIDA Health Services Initial Review Group. Carl is reviewer and consulting editor for seven journals. His research interests include treatment interventions, outcomes, HIV prevention, criminal justice sanctions, health services, and rural populations.
Thomas P. Gullotta, is C.E.O. of Child and Family Agency and is a member of the psychology and education departments at Eastern Connecticut State University. He is the senior author of the 4th edition of The Adolescent Experience, co-editor of The Encyclopedia of Primary Prevention and Health Promotion, and editor emeritus of the Journal of Primary Prevention. He is the senior book series editor for Issues in Children's and Families' Lives. Tom holds editorial appointments on the Journal of Early Adolescence, Journal of Adolescent Research, and Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation. He has published extensively on young people and primary prevention. In 1999, Tom was honored by the Society for Community Research and Action, Division 27 of the American Psychological Association with their Distinguished Contributions to Practice in Community Psychology Award.
Michele Staton Tindall, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Behavioral Science with an appointment in the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research. Her research involves investigating interventions for substance involved offenders. She is a co-investigator for the NIDA funded Criminal Justice-Drug Abuse Treatment System (CJ-DATS) cooperative agreement which involves the development of criminal justice interventions for substance users transitioning from prison to community across ten national research centers. In addition, she recently served as the project director of a National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) funded project which involved designing, implementing, and evaluating an employment intervention for drug court participants. She is also the evaluator for multiple Center on Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) funded projects focused on enhancing comprehensive substance abuse treatment services for women and their children. Her research interests include women, criminal justice, social support, and rural populations.