Alcoholism in adolescents and their families. Family-focused assessment and management

A family-focused approach is the most effective clinical method in the assessment and management of substance abuse in adolescents and their parents. The impact of alcoholism and substance abuse on parents and children, psychosocial risk factors, and indicators of alcoholism are important considerations when using this approach. Education regarding the family-focused approach to the treatment of substance abuse deserves a high priority in the training of pediatricians and other primary care physicians. As Doherty and Baird suggest," . . . the key to this training will not be . . . the development of a more sensitive liver function test, . . . but (rather) will be to help primary care physicians view individual patients as a part of a social context. The challenge will be to train the physicians to evaluate the patient in his or her social and family system for significant disturbances that commonly occur with chemical dependency. By evaluating the presenting patient in a family context, the primary care physician has the means to discover chemical dependency in early stages, when treatment options are less disruptive; when outcome is improved; and when the emotional and economic losses to patient, family and community are reduced."