An Impossible Assignment for the Pediatrician

Abstract

The review of the epidemiologic and clinical pattern of adolescent morbidity and mortality from the "highway epidemic," which appears in this issue of Pediatrics (1986;77:603-607), will be educational for those pediatricians who underestimate the awesome toll of this major pediatric health threat. The multifactorial causes of adolescent disruptive behavior the authors describe, however, will come as no surprise to pediatricians practicing adolescent medicine. Those of us who treat adolescents are accustomed to the instability of the exchange between the adolescent's immaturity and his or her environment which is capable of producing unpredictable crises.