Given the small window of opportunity to provide AOD treatment to youth following hospital presentation, a number of suggestions are made. From a harm-minimization perspective the focus of interventions should be on alcohol use by male youth and DSH associated with prescription/over-the-counter drug use by female adolescents. In addition, Indigenous youth are over-represented in hospital presentations, but there is currently a lack of evaluated interventions designed for them.

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Psychiatrists and other mental health professionals need to be aware of the above limitations when using the GHQ as a screening instrument with adolescents. Further studies are required to: (i) determine the minimum age at which it can be employed, (ii) compare the use of adult versus adolescent criterion interviews, (iii) assemble relevant normative data, and (iv) establish the validity of translated versions.

No abstract