Addiction
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To identify the morbidity, type of substance used and the pattern of presentation by adolescents with problems related to alcohol or other drug (AOD) use. ⋯ Given the small window of opportunity to provide AOD treatment to youth following hospital presentation, a number of suggestions are made. From a harm-minimization perspective the focus of interventions should be on alcohol use by male youth and DSH associated with prescription/over-the-counter drug use by female adolescents. In addition, Indigenous youth are over-represented in hospital presentations, but there is currently a lack of evaluated interventions designed for them.
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The aim of this study was to assess current levels of regular cigarette, alcohol and illicit drug use in adolescents in light of reported research by Goddard & Higgins (1999). ⋯ The results confirm that rates of cigarette smoking, alcohol and illicit drug use rise rapidly in the early teenage years, with higher rates of smoking in girls and drinking in boys.
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To investigate the relationship between early conduct problems and early onset of cannabis use, with special emphasis on possible gender differences. ⋯ Conduct problems are important precursors of early onset cannabis use, but probably represent gender-specific aetiologies. There might be an important potential for prevention of early onset drug use in the prevention of early conduct problems, in particular for girls.
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To explore the possibility that stable MMP patients have sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and abnormal sleep architecture defined by nocturnal sleep stages and sleep efficiency. ⋯ Stable MMP patients have more sleep architecture abnormalities than controls and a higher prevalence of central sleep apnoea. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings, to delineate the mechanisms for the abnormalities and to assess whether the SDB is related to sudden death in stable MMP patients. We recommend that MMP patients have awake and sleep respiration assessed to identify those potentially at risk.