Young people who use drugs often take a careless approach, believing that their choices are a harmless part of adolescent freedom. Dangerous behaviors such as drug and alcohol use are especially risky for teens, because they often experience a delusion of invincibility, thinking that the risks associated with a certain behavior can’t apply to them.

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When presented with a patient who has a potential drug problem, a medical professional must screen, assess, and diagnose before a treatment plan can be put in place. The amount of time and effort needed for each of these tasks will vary depending on the patient and level of addiction.

An abuse screening instrument is used to pinpoint patients who have an increased likelihood of drug addiction; it is also used to determine whether a more formal diagnostic instrument is needed. Many addiction professionals use the CAGE questionnaire. It contains four questions and has a very high rate of validity. Others may use the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory (SASSI). Both of these screening tools are short and easy to administer, providing a quick answer as to whether additional investigation is needed.

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More people of all ages are going to emergency rooms because of reactions to a prescription drug called carisoprodol, according to a report from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The number of visits more than doubled from 15,830 in 2004 to 31,763 in 2009.

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Posttraumatic stress syndrome and substance abuse disorders are among the hardest mental disorders to treat. People with posttraumatic stress disorders often spend years in psychotherapy without making significant progress in alleviating their symptoms, which can be debilitating enough to affect their everyday lives. Those with substance abuse disorders can go through expensive residential addiction treatments, and then relapse into their old lifestyles.

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Prescription drug abuse is costing the United States over $323 billion a year, according to a new study from Laffer Associates and Millennium Research Institute. The research team found that random urine tests could be a cheap way for employers, insurance companies, and taxpayers to save $25 billion. The study found that for every dollar spent on the tests, three dollars could be saved.

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Poison control centers in the United States saw a twenty-fold increase in the number of people calling them about bath salt poisoning last year. Police and hospital personnel are reporting similarly large increases in bizarre incidents of people abusing bath salts as hallucinatory drugs.

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The pure form of methamphetamine, crystal methamphetamine, is most often referred to as simply crystal meth. It is a manmade substance that affects a person’s central nervous system. Crystal meth can be inhaled, smoked or swallowed, but taken in any form, it leads to psychological and/or physical dependence or addiction.

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