Gender Differences in Psychiatric Symptomatology in Adolescents Attending a Community Drug and Alcohol Treatment Program

Abstract

This study examines mental health symptoms in a cohort of adolescents with substance use disorder (SUD), and attempts to determine if mental health symptoms differed by gender. We retrospectively looked at the Beck's Youth Inventory Second Edition (BYI-II) scores of 88 clients attending a community drug and alcohol treatment service in Dublin, Ireland that were completed at intake as part of their assessment. The raw and T-scores of the male patients were compared against their female counterparts and both against their age- and gender-matched normative population. Participants were 65 boys and 23 girls with a mean age of 16.2 years. Polysubstance use was the norm. As a group, the girls had higher T scores than the boys in all the domains of the BYI-II, and these were statistically significant. Sixty (68%) of the participants had a psychological problem which was moderate or severe in at least one of the five domains. This study found that SUD girls differ from their male counterparts in having both more internalizing and externalizing psychiatric problems. We also note that comorbid psychological problems are not universal. Thus we should avoid a "one size fits all" approach to treatment such as delivering universal self-esteem enhancement interventions to all adolescents with SUD.

Severity of Victimization and Co-Occurring Mental Health Disorders Among Substance Using Adolescents

“…While most studies show males in the general population are more likely to externalize (Darves-Bornoz et al 1998; Gallerani et al 2010), a national probability study on victims of child maltreatment show female adolescents are more likely to externalize than male adolescents (Wall et al 2005). A study on gender differences in psychiatric symptoms among adolescents by Edokpolo et al (2010) found that females with substance use disorders had more externalizing and internalizing problems than males. In this research, female adolescents appeared to be at higher risk than males for co-occurring ID and ED problems and ID-only problems.…”

Gender differences in psychosocial complexity for a cohort of adolescents attending youth-specific substance abuse services

“…Following a long gap in research activity, several recent studies conducted in substance abuse services have confirmed differences between young males and females in the prevalence of cooccurring emotional and behavioural health problems (Dean, McBride, MacDonald, Connolly, & McDermott, 2010;Edokpolo, James, Kearns, Campbell, & Smyth, 2010;Hodgins, Lovenhag, Rehn, & Nilsson, 2014;James, Smyth, & Apantaku-Olajide, 2012;Keane, Ducray, & Smyth, 2015;Slesnick & Prestopnik, 2005;Wu, Lu, Sterling, & Weisner, 2004).…”

Can We Predict Which Adolescents Will Engage in Outpatient Substance Abuse Treatment?

“…However, young women usually present to substance use services with more severe substance abuse and psychosocial problems in general. [28][29][30] Because males make up most of the new referrals into the service, one might expect the service to have adopted practices that are more focused around the engagement of boys. Despite this, we found better engagement and retention in females, perhaps because the girls presenting to "Altered High" have more severe problems.…”