A special section on adolescent substance abuse highlights Volume 29 of Adolescent Psychiatry. Contributions range from an examination of brain myelination in relation to onset of addictive disorders (Bartzokis) to the screening instruments used to detect substance use disorders (Rosner) to practical aspects of psychiatric assessment and management of substance abusing adolescents (Havivi). Topical studies focus on the changing patterns of use and health risks of the "designer drug" Ecstasy (Grob); the club drugs gamma-hydroxybutyrate and ketamine (Miotto et al.); and adolescent pathological gambling, a behavioral disorder with strikingly addictive features. Taken together, these illuminating essays converge in an appreciation of adolescent substance abuse and
addiction in all their biopsychosocial complexity.
Elsewhere in Volume 29, contributors review neuroimaging studies in an effort to shed light on adolescent psychiatric disorders (Day et al.); reevaluate the construct of borderline personality disorder as it pertains to adolescence (Becker & Grilo; Paris); and present the encouraging results of a pilot project on the psychodynamic psychotherapy of adolescents with panic disorder (Milrod et al.). A case series on the treatment of hospitalized adolescents who deliberately ingest foreign objects (Petti et al.) and a case study of the cross-cultural issues that arose in the therapy of an Asian American adolescent (Shen et al.) enlarge the clinical and cultural scope of the volume.
True to the legacy of previous volumes in the series, Volume 29 of Adolescent Psychiatry brings within its purview all the elements of a multidimensional grasp of adolescent development, psychopathology, and treatment. Neuroscientific
findings, empirical clinical studies, case series, and descriptions of clinical approaches all take their place in this illuminating and richly textured collection.
Lois T Flaherty, M.D., is a child and adolescent psychiatrist on the teaching faculty of Harvard University and the University of Maryland School of Medicine. A past president of the American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry and a consultant to the Center for School Mental Health Assistance in Baltimore, Dr. Flaherty remains active in school-based mental health programs and community psychiatry.
