Commentary evaluates screening recommendations for alcohol and drug use in adolescents, suggesting clearer classification may aid practitioners.
In Reply.— We appreciated the concerns expressed by Dr Schwartz regarding our recommendations for screening the alcohol- or drug-using adolescent. We agree that the classification of adolescent drug and alcohol use as advocated by MacDonald and others1,2 has yet to be standardized or validated. However, we believe that, for the practitioner trying to decide which teenager requires further evaluation, distinguishing between these various patterns of use provides a concrete approach that may be applied to the everyday setting.
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FISHER et al. (1988) studied this question.
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