Adolescent Drinking

Alcohol is the most widely used drug by young persons between the ages of 12 and 17 years. Routine screening, however, is relatively rare in pediatric practices. Because life problems for adolescents and adults differ, many screening instruments are inappropriate for younger individuals. The Adolescent Drinking Index is a self-report instrument developed specifically to screen adolescents. The inventory's 24 questions focus on drinking-related loss of control as well as social, psychological, and physical symptoms of alcohol problems.

Clinical laboratory procedures, the second type of screening test, frequently are used to corroborate results of physicians' interviews and of self-administered questionnaires. Biochemical markers of heavy alcohol consumption can provide objective evidence of problem drinking, especially in patients who deny any drinking problem. However, the sensitivities and specificity's of these biological laboratory markers can be modified by nonalcoholic liver injury, by drug use, and by metabolic disorders or individual metabolic differences.

It is important to note that self-report interviews and questionnaires have greater sensitivity and specificity than routine blood tests for biochemical markers. Laboratory tests may be used most successfully in conjunction with self-report instruments to enhance objectivity.

 

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