Suchergebnisse

Beverage alcohol is the most widely used, enjoyed, and abused addictive substance in the United States. Alcohol related problems — which range from alcoholism, cirrhosis, trauma, and criminal behavior to birth defects, cancer, and other long-term health problems — result in an estimated 100,000 deaths and cost the American society more than $135 billion each year. Alcohol abuse is the leading health and safety problem in the African-American community, making its health and social consequences especially severe. Given this backdrop, there are compelling reasons to be concerned when alcohol producers target African Americans with special advertising and promotions. It is important to examine the marketing and advertising practices of alcohol producers as they relate to African-American communities and their potential impact on alcohol-related behaviors.

Substance abuse treatment organizations are universally faced with the problem of co-occurring psychiatric disorders among the clients they serve. A first step is assessment of such comorbid conditions; however, the time constraints in front-line substance abuse treatment organizations make extensive clinical assessments almost impossible. The development and validation of a brief screening tool for psychiatric disorders in individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs) could have enormous implications for clinical practice. We assessed the performance characteristics of the Psychiatric Diagnostic Screening Questionnaire (PDSQ) and the Conners' Adult ADHD Rating Scale (CAARS) against the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-IV) in 120 patients admitted to SUD treatment. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either the SCID or PDSQ. In general, the PDSQ and CAARS performed well. There were no statistically significant performance differences by order of administration, gender, or drug use in past month. For the GAD subscale, Caucasian patients had higher levels of agreement than non-Caucasian patients.