Psychopathology as risk for adolescent substance use disorders: A developmental psychopathology perspective

Examines several issues on psychiatric diagnoses as risk factors for adoles cent drug use and substance use disorders. The articles in this special sec tion are discussed in terms of dynamic models of risk and protective factor s, stages of research needed for establishing causal mechanisms in the etio logy of drug use disorders, conceptualizing drug use and abuse in the conte xt of the developmental organization of the individual, equifinality and mu ltifinality in developmental pathways to drug use and abuse, and issues in conceptualizing drug use problems as mental disorders. Future directions fo r research on the etiology of problem drug use, guided by principles of dev elopmental psychopathology and prevention science, are provided.