Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie
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Review
Assessing children's disaster reactions and mental health needs: screening and clinical evaluation.
To present a framework for assessing children's disaster reactions and mental health needs. ⋯ Screening is appropriate to identify children at risk for psychiatric disturbance who will need further evaluation to determine diagnosis. Screening should not be used to dictate treatment decisions. Children who screen positive for psychiatric risk should receive a full clinical evaluation. Children determined to be suffering from psychiatric disorders should receive, or be referred for, formal treatment. Children without psychiatric disorders may benefit from psychosocial interventions.
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Electronic media use is highly prevalent among today's youth, and its overuse in the general population has been consistently associated with the presence of psychiatric symptoms. In contrast, little information exists about electronic media use among youth with psychiatric disorders. Our study aims to compare patterns of television and computer and gaming station use among youth in psychiatric clinic and community-based school populations. ⋯ Clinically based samples of youth with mental illnesses spend more time engaged in electronic media activities and are more likely to play violent video games, compared with youth in the general population. Further research is needed to determine the long-term implications of these differences.
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To present epidemiologic information on adolescent use of prescription drugs to get high, and not for medical purposes, in Canada. ⋯ Use of prescription drugs to get high was prevalent among adolescents in Canada in 2008/2009. Findings highlight the need for clinicians to include questions about prescription drugs when screening adolescents for substance abuse in Canada. Findings also highlight the need for evidence-informed strategies to reduce prescription drug misuse among Aboriginal youth living outside First Nations communities in Canada. The results of this study suggest school connectedness may be a particularly important target for these interventions.
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To examine the association between a history of 5 types of childhood maltreatment (that is, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect, and emotional neglect) and several substance use disorders (SUDs), including alcohol, sedatives, tranquilizers, opioids, amphetamines, cannabis, cocaine, hallucinogens, heroin, and nicotine, in a nationally representative US adult sex-stratified sample. ⋯ This research provides evidence of the robust nature of the relations between many types of childhood maltreatment and many individual SUDs. The prevention of childhood maltreatment may help to reduce SUDs in the general population.