Psychiatric Comorbidity and Complications.

This article highlights the prevalence of co-occurring disorders among adolescents and underscores the complexity and opportunities of treating these patients in a systematic, comprehensive approach. As evidenced by this review, the need exists to develop and test models of care that integrate co-occurring disorders into both psychiatric and substance abuse treatment settings. The challenge for pediatric practitioners is to provide detailed assessments linked to evidence-based treatment plans to account for the variations in adolescent development and the unique risk factor profile of each patient.

Vicarious traumatization and coping in medical students: a pilot study.

Objective: This study explored the impact of traumatic experiences on medical students during their clerkships.

Methods: Medical students completed an anonymous online survey inquiring about traumatic experiences on required clerkships during their third year of medical school, including any symptoms they may have experienced as well as coping strategies they may have used.

Results: Twenty-six percent of students reported experiencing vicarious traumatization (VT) during their third year of medical school.

Peer attitudes effects on adolescent substance use: the moderating role of race and gender.

We examined the relationship between adolescents' perceptions of their close friends' attitudes about substance use, and their own use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana. Using data from the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, a multistage area probability sample sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (n = 17,865), we tested the direct and moderating effects of subgroups of race and gender on perceptions of adolescents' close friends on past month substance use. Significant effects were found on peer attitudes influencing substance use for all race and gender subgroups.

An analysis of racial and sex differences for smoking among adolescents in a juvenile correctional center.

The purpose of this study was to investigate racial and sex differences on the risk factors for smoking initiation and daily smoking among juvenile justice adolescents, a population that is traditionally ignored in school-based epidemiological samples. This study used archival data collected by juvenile justice authorities for a large sample of juvenile justice adolescents (N=4381), examining interaction terms to determine race and sex differences for risk factors. About 70% of juvenile justice adolescents reported ever having smoked cigarettes while almost half reported daily smoking.