For those of you who are not yet familiar with it, I would like to introduce the Columbia Suicide Severity Risk Scale (C-SSRS). The C-SSRS is comprised of a series of simple questions used to assess the severity and immediacy of a suicide risk. One of the many benefits of the scale are that the…
Ben Affleck should be commended for his Facebook post on March 14, 2017, that announced that he had completed 30 days of treatment for alcohol addiction. Affleck who had been to rehab in 2001 stated, “I want my kids to know there is no shame in getting help when you need it, and to be…
There’s been ample research over the last decade showing the negative effects of drugs and alcohol on attention, memory, and learning. It’s now known that the effects last for days or weeks after the acute effects of using (the actual “high”) wear off. In the end, a teen who smokes marijuana daily may be functioning at…
Right now, all 50 states have a minimum legal drinking age of 21. Some states, though, have also implemented expanded underage drinking laws. Those additional laws were the focus of research done by a team at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) in Calverton, Maryland, and published in the March 2016 issue of…
There have been many claims, for many years, about marijuana being a gateway drug and this has been an accepted “fact” for a long time but it’s been found that some of the research this is based on is faulty. So, a team of researchers at Texas A&M and the University of Florida decided to…
The Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey has measured drug, alcohol and cigarette use among adolescent students nationwide since 1975. Over 40,000 students from almost 400 public and private schools participated in the 2014 MTF survey. Many of the results are promising with a few notable exceptions. The use of cigarettes, alcohol, and abuse of prescription pain…
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 39% of adolescents in the US are current drinkers, and about 22% are current binge drinkers. The average U.S. adolescent is also exposed to about 2.5 hours of popular music per day, and 8 mentions of alcohol brands every day. A study published in the online…
A recent study from the Boston University School of Public Health has found that teens drink less in states that have more stringent alcohol policies, even if those policies are targeted at adults. Researchers created a scoring system to assess the strength of alcohol-related policies in the US. The policies include alcohol taxing, restricting sales to…
Despite the hype around drugs like Molly and Oxycodone, marijuana continues to be the most commonly used illicit drug in the US, particularly among adolescents and young adults. Numerous studies have documented the potential health implications of marijuana use. Studies have found that teens who used pot daily for 3 years had an increased risk of…
Each April since 1987, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) sponsors Alcohol Awareness Month “to increase public awareness and understanding, reduce stigma and encourage local communities to focus on alcoholism and alcohol-related issues.” This year’s theme, “For the Health of It: Early Education on Alcoholism and Addiction,” is aimed at educating people about…