[The adolescent abstainers: A risk group?]
OBJECTIVE
If abstinence from substance in adolescents may nowadays be regarded statistically as a deviant behavior, what is its significance from a developmental point of view? The aim of this article is to examine the mental health characteristics and the social integration of adolescent abstainers.


METHODS
A comprehensive literature review of epidemiological studies including data on adolescent abstainers was conducted.


RESULTS
Compared to the abundant literature devoted to adolescent substance abusers, few studies report data on adolescent abstainers. In addition, many methodological problems limit their interpretability and their comparison. However that may be, this body of work suggests that if abstinence may be due to something intrinsic about the individual (such as psychosocial adjustment difficulties, personality traits or gender), many other environmental factors (such as family background of temperance, cultural practices, upbringing or religion) may determine abstaining behavior. By this way, from a psychopathological angle, adolescent abstainers certainly constitute a more heterogeneous group than the adolescent substance abusers. Some of them are quite psychologically healthy, whereas others are more socially withdrawn and may suffer from emotional disorders.


CONCLUSIONS
In terms of prevention, these data highlight the need for longitudinal prospective studies examining the psychosocial status of adolescent abstainers, their antecedents, their outcome and their motivations.
Pôle universitaire de psychiatrie, hôpital Sainte-Marguerite, AP-HM, 270, boulevard de Sainte-Marguerite, 13374 Marseille cedex 09, France; Aix-Marseille université, 13284 Marseille, France. Electronic address: daniel.bailly@ap-hm.fr.
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D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008603:Mental Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009042:Motivation / Q000502:physiology; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012067:Religion; D012307:Risk Factors; D012919:Social Behavior; D013695:Temperance / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
Abstinence; Adolescence; Alcohol; Alcool; Cannabis; Epidemiology; Épidémiologie