Substance Abuse Severity in Female Adolescents

Abstract

The authors investigated the association between age at menarche and age at onset of substance use with frequency of alcohol consumption in mid‐adolescence; age at first DSM‐III‐R diagnosis of psychoactive substance use disorder (PSUD); severity of physical health, substance use, and psychosocial problems; and psychiatric disorders in female adolescents. Twenty‐eight PSUD female adolescents (age 14–18 years) were studied. Chronological age at first substance use, and not age at menarche, was associated with the four variables mentioned above. These findings indicate that substance use in this population is encompassed within significant psychiatric disturbance that most commonly precedes the onset of PSUD.