Study after study has shown that teens suffering from depression and other mental disorders are much more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol. They are much more likely to begin using them and becoming addicted to them in the future.
Teens that get treatment for their major depressive disorder (MDD) before they begin abusing drugs are less likely to start. Early treatment and drug education are the best prevention methods. This as reported in dailyrx.com.
Recent research has shown that alcohol use disorders are very prevalent during that particular age period and there’s a need for a lot of prevention and education for college students to avoid getting into heavy drinking and then the beginnings of an alcohol disorder.
Results also suggested that if adolescents were involved with drugs or alcohol before getting treatment for depression they were more likely to return to drugs and alcohol after treatment. The recidivism rate was almost 95%
Another interesting find of the study was that when the teenagers got over the depression, about half of them stayed well for the whole five-year period, but almost half of them had a second episode of depression. And they found out that, for those who had both alcohol disorder and another depression, the alcohol disorder almost always came first.
Once again I espouse that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of later trouble. Let’s make MIP classes mandatory and help make sure our teens survive into adulthood addiction-free.