Depression Is Predictive Of Substance Abuse Outcomes

A difficult challenge to the juvenile justice system and child welfare system is working with adolescents with comorbid difficulties, causing these adolescents to becoming at risk for incarceration and involvement with the juvenile and adult justice system. The juvenile justice system appears to be having a challenging time in determining how to respond and treat adolescents with mental health and substance use. "Many

Alcoholic beverages are the only consumable products in the U.S. that do not have nutrition labels. Consumers are being kept in the dark about serving size, alcoholic content, calories, carbohydrates, fats, protein, cholesterol and other nutrition information. Alcohol, specifically ethyl alcohol or ethanol, is produced by fermenting the starch or sugar in various fruits and grains. Alcoholic beverages produced by fermentation and distillation include beer that is usually about 4 to 6 % alcohol, wine that is usually 7 to 15% alcohol, and hard liquor which is about 45% alcohol.

Men and women have different levels of risks of getting mental illnesses such as alcohol dependency. This is “more than twice as high in men than women. In developed countries, approximately 1 in 5 men and 1 in 12 women develop alcohol dependence during their lives” WHO 2015. This clearly shows that men and women have different risks when it comes to health and illness. Men are also twice as likely to have personality disorders, but women are more likely to have anxiety and depression than men are. Women have more accounts of sexual harassment and rape and this has a knock on effect to the amount of people with depression.

“Changes in self-reported frequency of drug and alcohol use and in Drug Abuse Screening Test scores

Addiction to drugs and alcohol has taken epidemic scale in the recent decades, the number of people affected by this disease has been increasing steadily and the age of drug and alcohol use initiation has sadly been decreasing, children as young as 12 years old are reported as addicts. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) estimated that 22.5 million Americans aged 12 and older self-reported needing treatment for alcohol or illicit drug use in 2014. Drug abuse and mental health disorders are commonly seen as coexisting conditions. They are among the top conditions that cause disability and carry a high burden in society.

Adolescent substance abuse is a phenomenon in our country that has been steadily inclining ever since the 2000’s. The effects of this incline are very straight forward and call for action. The facts are that alcohol and drugs are the leading causes of crime among youth and that alcohol and drugs are the leading factors in teenage suicide. (National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc., 2014) Because adolescence is such a crucial developmental age the effects of alcohol and drug use are catastrophic. To fully understand this phenomenon we must firs operationalize all of the factors we are trying to study. The DSM V classifies substance abuse as,

This is because many people with depression use drugs and alcohol to attempt to cope. Furthermore, it is very common for sufferers to try to hide the symptoms of depression by using illicit substances, which consequently only makes the symptoms worse (Beyond Blue 2015). Unfortunately, if they use drugs and alcohol on a frequent basis there is a significantly high chance that their usage will develop into an addiction due to their self-medication attempts. This in itself indicates the growing public issue and the impact of drug use and addiction due to depression in our society. Due to this it can be said that the private trouble of drug addiction is in fact a public issue with many underlying causes; one such underlying cause being socioeconomic

Hellmuth, Jaquier, Swan, & Sullivan intend to determine if “the severity of women’s IPV victimization and use of IPV, depression severity, and alcohol and drug problem severity differ significantly between latent classes that emerge within our (the) sample” (Hellmuth, Jaquier, Swan, & Sullivan, 2014).

As an example, individuals suffering from an anxiety disorder may start using a substance (eg. alcohol or drugs) in an effort to decrease their distress. These substances produce positive, rewarding short-term effects to the individual (Stewart & Conrod, 2008). However, this has negative long-term effects and can result in alcohol dependence. Hall and colleagues (2009) found that people with comorbid generalized anxiety disorder and substance use disorder had higher rates of alcohol and drug use in order to relieve symptoms of their anxiety, compared to those with only generalized anxiety disorder. In further support of this pathway, research has shown that 75% of the time an anxiety disorder is present in an individual before a substance use disorder develops (Smith & Book, 2008). However, Kushner, Krueger, Frye, and Peterson (2008) note that this does not demonstrate the anxiety disorder caused the comorbid substance use disorder in these 75% of cases, nor that the substance use disorder caused the anxiety disorder in the remaining 25%; it is merely a

When looking at the information of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) we find that the widespread problems of mood, anxiety, and personality disorders among alcohol- and drug-dependent persons is very high. It is interesting that NESARC shows a significant comorbidity linking substance use disorders and independent mood and anxiety disorders is spreading widely throughout in the U.S. general population Overall, according to what NESARC research has shown that almost twenty percent of individuals that within a year, or present-day substance disorder experience anxiety or mood disorder within the same time period, and not only that, but close to a twenty percent of individuals with a problem right

From time to time we all have periods of sadness, unhappy thoughts. Among the United States population, around eight to ten percent suffer from a form of depression as unipolar depression. Depressive and bipolar disorders show to be a principal cause of disability, without cure a person can have a tough experience with relationships, work, and social activities. Substance abuse disorders are becoming an rampant. The need for instant indulgence has become more and more widespread in the world. The DSM-5 shows the symptoms checklist for diagnosis of substance abuse disorder (see table 1.3 in appendix a), and according to Comer, (2014) “the substances people misuse fall into several categories: depressants, stimulants, hallucinogens, and cannabis”

This particular article highlights the impact between childhood sexual abuse and alcohol, cannabis and cigarette use in minor girls. The usage of substances by minor girls increases when there is a direct link to childhood sexual abuse in their past. Having early substance usage affects the brain negatively during a vital period of brain development, which, can result in negative consequences and further delinquency. Cigarette use and cannabis use in this study, had proved to be an actual distinct factor in linkage with childhood sexual abuse. Additionally, there is substantial likelihood of early alcohol use if a history of sexual abuse is in existence.

Keeping up with the life of a typical adolescent is not as simple as it seems. Adolescents frequently get consumed with negative thoughts about the future which causes anxiety and prevents sleep. These are all signs that can lead one to a state called depression1. Once an adolescent is depressed, it is common for them to reach out to substances that numb their pain such as: alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana. These drugs can be extremely destructive when abused. Since these substances can easily be bought by young adolescents, it is becoming more common for youngsters to reach out to these dangerous substances. Alcohol being the most prevalent and the easiest to get places a lot of trouble on youths. According to past research, there is a direct correlation between depression and alcohol abuse among teenagers aged 13-18.

Gender differences do have an effect on depression. Girls are more affected with depression than boys because girls develop maturity earlier than boys. When young adolescence girls reach puberty they grow to become more self -conscious of their self- imagine than boys. Boys are more acceptable to their body change such as gaining weight or regaining muscles. In adolescence girls they seem to always compare themselves to others and their never satisfied with their appearance. This can lead to severe eating disorders

In a study done by Paul Rhode, PhD, a scientist at the Oregon Research Institute in Eugene, he and his colleagues evaluated whether teenagers with serious alcohol problems were likely to continue their behavior into adulthood. Roxanne Nelson states that the researchers found that serious alcohol problems as a teenager did predict future substance abuse, alcoholism, depression, and symptoms of antisocial and borderline personality disorders by age 24. In addition, teenagers who were heavy drinkers but that hadn’t actually been diagnosed with a serious alcohol problem were also at some increased risk for these same problems.