Mixed abuse of alcohol and drugs in teenagers in Sweden vs a group from the general population

We compared the subsequent life and development of 182 teenagers (the controls) from the general population and 345 teenagers of the same ages (the probands) who were taken care of by the Social Service Department, all of them from Greater Stockholm. All of the probands but none of the controls abused alcohol and drugs, and the probands had more psychosocial problems than the controls. The probands had grown up in families with more abuse of alcohol and drugs, broken homes, an alcohol-abusing father and mother and had taken up their parents' concomitant drug and alcohol abuse by parental influences. There were differences in social adjustment and health status between the probands compared with the controls. Social assistance was required to a much greater extent by the probands and they were registered in the Temperance Register and the Criminal Offenders Register and were in contact with the child welfare authorities more often than the controls. The proband children were also registered for sick-leave more often than the boys and girls from the general population and accounted for a larger number of visits to the wards and outpatient clinics for somatic symptoms and to psychiatric clinics and wards. The two groups of boys and girls of the probands were like “twin” groups in that they were almost equally often involved in crimes with drugs and their social maladjustment and health status resembled each other.