The Opioid Epidemic and Its Effect on Adolescents

Written By: Julie Hsu, MFT Trainee at ACS, On-Campus Counseling Program The opioid crisis has gotten a lot of publicity, but the general belief has been that children and adolescents are seldom affected. However, what began as a public health problem of primarily young and middle-aged males is now an epidemic of prescription and illicit […]

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Marijuana use and abuse rates decline among US teens

By: Sam Levin, The Guardian  Rates  of adolescent marijuana use and abuse have declined across the US, according to an unprecedented study that casts doubts on one of the central arguments against legalizing weed. Researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis surveyed 216,852 teenagers from all 50 states and found that […]

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Additional Support for Parents when Adolescents Lie about Drug Use

Written By: Mayra Vargas, MFTI, Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Program Parental instinct is key to supporting their teens with their drug use/abuse. Parents sometimes ignore their “gut instinct” that lets them know something is happening with their adolescent.  Often a parent will tentatively ask about these issues, and the teen will say ‘everything is fine’ — […]

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The H.O.P.E. on the “Road to Recovery”

Written By:  Laura Cole, Clinical Intern, ACS Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Program and Community Counseling Program There are few people who enter recovery with feelings of exuberance.  Generally, pain and consequences are the catalysts for seeking help; and those experiences do not tend to generate warm and fuzzy feelings of hope.  Hence, the ‘road to […]

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Study Shows that Treating Depression in Teens Wards off Future Substance Abuse

A study recently released in the  Journal of Consulting and Clinicial Psychology found a correlation between the treatment of severe depression in teens and the likelihood of future substance abuse. Nearly 200 youths at 11 sites across the United States were studied for five years. The participants analyzed by the study were ages 17-23 at the […]

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