BACKGROUND Risks associated with parental separation have received limited attention in research on children of parents with substance use disorders. We examined early substance involvement as a function of parental separation during childhood and parental alcohol and cannabis dependence. METHOD Data were drawn from 1318 adolescent offspring of monozygotic (MZ) or dizygotic (DZ) Australian tw...

Substance use disorders have undergone major changes in both the international (ICD-10) and American (DSM-IV) nosological systems, thus necessitating a study of cross-system agreement between ICD-10 and DSM-IV substance dependence, especially from a developing country setting. Further, endorsement rates for various substance dependence criteria in the two systems need to be studied from a simil...

BACKGROUND Family studies provide a useful approach to exploring the continuities and discontinuities between major depressive disorder (MDD) in children and adolescents and MDD in adults. We report a family study of MDD in a large community sample of adolescents. METHODS Probands included 268 adolescents with a history of MDD, 110 adolescents with a history of nonmood disorders but no histor...

OBJECTIVE The authors' goal was to assess the validity of DSM-IV diagnoses obtained with the Spanish versions of the Psychiatric Research Interview for Substance and Mental Disorders (PRISM) and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) compared with the longitudinal, expert, all data (LEAD) procedure in a group of substance abusers. METHOD A total of 105 substance abusers recruited...

Objectives: Early maladaptive schemas are valid representations of unpleasant childhood experiences that shape a person’s viewpoints of the world, and lead to clinical symptoms such as depression, personality disorders, and substance abuse. Given the importance of this matter, we conducted a research on early maladaptive schemas in substance-abusers, to allow more appropriate preventive m...

BACKGROUND Assessment of co-morbid personality disorders in substance use disorders may lead to important insights concerning individual patients. However, little is known about the potential value of routine personality disorder assessment in a clinical context. METHODS Patients are adults with past-year substance dependence seeking treatment at a centralized intake unit for substance abuser...

BACKGROUND The Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) was developed to detect substance use disorders. AIMS The objective of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the French version of ASSIST in various clinical groups with different levels of substance use. METHODS 150 subjects were recruited from clients attending primary health care,...

OBJECTIVE To examine the association between HIV infection and psychiatric disorders among prisoners, where mental illness, substance abuse, and HIV are disproportionately represented. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. METHODS Using a sequential randomization scheme, 200 HIV-seropositive and 200 HIV-seronegative prisoners were selected for evaluation of psychiatric illnesses with the Structured...

OBJECTIVE In previous studies, factors related to a history of suicide attempts in persons with alcohol dependence have included sociodemographic variables, a more severe course of alcoholism, additional substance use disorders, and psychiatric comorbidity. This 5-year prospective study evaluated attributes associated with suicide attempts in a group of treatment-seeking persons with alcohol de...