title: Troubled adolescents: substance abuse and mental disorder in young offenders.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many studies indicate the high prevalence of juvenile substance abuse. There is increasingly more dual diagnosis and mental illnesses in adolescents and many juvenile offenses are related to drug abuse.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a descriptive study about the relationship between drug abuse and clinical, demographic and criminal characteristics in a sample of 144 youths seen in the Therapeutic Juvenile Justice Unit (UTJJ) of the Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Deu.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 65.3% of the sample had a disorder on Axis I, 22.2% of which were related with the psychotic spectrum and 18.1% ADHD. Personality disorder occurred in 42.4%, the most frequent ones being antisocial disorder (16%), and borderline personality disorder (6.9%). Of the sample, 78.5% were drug consumers and 51.4% of the total only consumed 1 substance. There is a tendency among psychotic teenagers to consume cannabis and ADHD patients to consume cannabis and cocaine. A significant relationship is found between nationality and inhalants drugs, social and economic level and sedative drugs and alcohol, and parental death and alcohol (p<0.05-0.005).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The level of drug use/abuse in juvenile justice is very high. Although there is no evidence about the relationship between the substance they consume and the profile of the young offender, some tendencies are observed.
authors.affiliation: Unidad Terapéutica de Justicia Juvenil. Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ribas-Siñol
authors.affiliation: Unidad Terapéutica de Justicia Juvenil. Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu.
authors.forename: Noemi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Del Prado-Sanchez
authors.affiliation: Unidad Terapéutica de Justicia Juvenil. Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu.
authors.forename: Jaume
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Claramunt-Mendoza
authors.affiliation: Unidad Terapéutica de Justicia Juvenil. Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu.
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Civit-Ramirez
authors.affiliation: Unidad Terapéutica de Justicia Juvenil. Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu.
authors.forename: Oriol
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Canalias-Perez
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Investigación y Desarrollo. Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu. CIBERSAM.
authors.forename: Susana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ochoa
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000453:epidemiology; D017831:Diagnosis, Dual (Psychiatry); D006801:Humans; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*