Psychiatric symptoms and substance use disorders in a nationally representative sample of American adolescents involved with foster care.
Abstract
To ascertain the prevalence of psychiatric symptoms and substance use disorders among
adolescents with a lifetime history of foster care placement, using data from a nationally
representative sample of U.S. adolescents.We studied adolescents aged 12-17 years
in the public use file of the 2000 National Household on Drug Abuse (n = 19,430, including
464 adolescents with history of foster care placement). Psychiatric symptoms and substance
use disorders were ascertained through direct interviewing of adolescents. Logistic
regression analyses were used to estimate the odds of past-year psychiatric symptoms
and substance use disorders among adolescents involved with foster care, as compared
to those without a lifetime history of foster care placement (comparison group).Adolescents
involved with foster care had more past-year psychiatric symptoms, and especially
more conduct symptoms, and past-year substance use disorders than those never placed
in foster care. Adolescents involved with foster care were about four times more likely
to have attempted suicide in the preceding 12 months (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 3.95;
95% confidence interval [CI] 2.78, 5.61), and about five times more likely to receive
a drug dependence diagnosis in the same period (AOR 4.81; 95% CI 3.22, 7.18).Adolescents
involved with foster care have a higher prevalence of psychiatric symptoms and drug
use disorders than those never placed in foster care. Additionally, the results of
this study suggest that they may be at elevated risk for suicide attempts.
Type
Journal articleSubject
HumansSubstance-Related Disorders
Foster Home Care
Health Surveys
Prevalence
Cross-Sectional Studies
Adolescent Behavior
Mental Health
Mental Disorders
Adolescent
Child
United States
Female
Male
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/20040Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1016/j.jadohealth.2005.06.014Publication Info
Pilowsky, Daniel J; & Wu, Li-Tzy (2006). Psychiatric symptoms and substance use disorders in a nationally representative sample
of American adolescents involved with foster care. The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent
Medicine, 38(4). pp. 351-358. 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2005.06.014. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/20040.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Li-Tzy Wu
Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Education/Training: Pre- and post-doctoral training in mental health service research,
psychiatric epidemiology (NIMH T32), and addiction epidemiology (NIDA T32) from Johns
Hopkins University School of Public Health (Maryland); Fellow of the NIH Summer Institute
on the Design and Conduct of Randomized Clinical Trials.Director: Duke Community Based
Substance Use Disorder Research Program.Research interests: COVID-19, Opioid misuse,
Opioid overdose, Opioid use disorder

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