About Substance Abuse
How common is it?
What causes it?
How long does it last?
What are the long-term consequences?
What treatments are effective?
A review of the evidence
What's new?
Resources

What treatments are effective?
First of all, prevention is the ideal way to deal with the problem of substance abuse.  It is also important to know that some treatments, like group therapy with other young people who have been engaged in criminal activity, may cause more harm than good.

Parents should resist the temptation to buy one of the readily available home drug testing kits.  Testing teenagers for drug use at home or in the schools is not recommended for many reasons.  First of all, the testing kits may not be reliable, and may incorrectly label a teen as a drug user when he or she isn’t one.  Doing the testing without the individual’s knowledge is also a betrayal of trust and could seriously harm the parent-child relationship. Similarly, testing in the school setting may be a violation of civil rights. 

Screening for drug use should be used only if there are good programs and treatment facilities available to treat what is a physical or psychological illness.  It should not be used to punish teens who are being harmed by their drug use.¹

Comprehensive programs have been found to work best to treat established substance abuse problems.  These include all or some of the following components:

• medications or cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) that address underlying mental health problems;

• family therapy used in addition to other treatments to reduce family conflict;

• parental monitoring and limit setting with teens; and

• interventions that help increase motivation so that teens stay in recovery.

Long-term follow up of any treatment is recommended because substance use is a chronic disorder.²

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1.	Committee on Substance Abuse and Council on School Health. American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement. Testing for drugs of abuse in children and adolescents. Pediatrics. 2007; 119(3): 627-630.
2.	Bukstein OG, on behalf of the Work Group on Quality Issues, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Practice Parameter for the Assessment and Treatment of Children and Adolescents with Substance Use Disorders. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 2005. 44(6): 609-621.