Adolescent heroin use: a review of the descriptive and treatment literature

The prevalence of heroin use is rising among young people. We reviewed descriptive and treatment studies of heroin-using youth. Medline and Psychinfo were searched with the following kewords: heroin or opiate; and adolescent or young or juvenile. Nine articles describing treatment and five articles...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of substance abuse treatment 2002-10, Vol.23 (3), p.231-237
Main Authors: Hopfer, Christian J, Khuri, Elizabeth, Crowley, Thomas J, Hooks, Sabrina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Addictive behaviors
Adolescent
Adolescents
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Analgesics, Opioid - therapeutic use
Analysis. Health state
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Children & youth
Comorbidity
Delinquency
Drug Abuse
Drug addiction
Drug use
Epidemiology
General aspects
Heroin
Heroin Dependence - epidemiology
Heroin Dependence - psychology
Heroin Dependence - therapy
Humans
Juvenile Delinquency
Medical sciences
Methadone
Methadone - therapeutic use
Methadone Maintenance
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Risk Factors
Substance abuse treatment
Treatment Outcome
Treatment Outcomes
Treatment Programs
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The prevalence of heroin use is rising among young people. We reviewed descriptive and treatment studies of heroin-using youth. Medline and Psychinfo were searched with the following kewords: heroin or opiate; and adolescent or young or juvenile. Nine articles describing treatment and five articles describing clinical characteristics of youth with heroin use were reviewed. Descriptive studies of heroin-using youth demonstrate substantial polysubstance use and psychiatric comorbidity. The largest treatment study found that, of four different treatment modalities, methadone maintenance had the highest retention rate. For youth who stayed in treatment for at least 6 months, therapeutic communities or drug-free treatment resulted in better outcomes compared with methadone maintenance. No controlled treatment trials were found. Length of time in treatment, regardless of modality, was the best predictor of outcome. The rise of heroin use among adolescents and young adults calls for descriptive studies as well as controlled treatment studies.
ISSN:0740-5472
1873-6483
DOI:10.1016/S0740-5472(02)00250-7