Professor Eilish Gilvarry
Newcastle and North Tyneside Drug and Alcohol Services, Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust
Clinical Director of Specialties at Northumberland, Tyne & Wear NHS Foundation Trust and Consultant Psychiatrist in Addictions at the Newcastle & North Tyneside Addictions Service, Eilish has been involved with addictions services in the UK over many years, with a particular interest in young people. She has recently been appointed Honorary Professor of Addiction Psychiatry at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Eilish was Chair of the Executive Committee of the Addictions Faculty of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and has been involved with a number of working parties: a member of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines on opiate detoxification (2007) and on the review of the ‘orange’ clinical management guidelines with the Department of Health (2007). In 2010 she chaired a review of injectables treatment for drug users, was a member of the NICE guidelines on clinical management of alcohol related physical complications and also a member of the NICE guidelines on management of alcohol harm and dependence. She is Chair of the Secretary of State for Transport’s advisory committee with the DVLA on drugs and alcohol, and President of the Society for the Study of Addictions. Eilish has edited a number of books, published widely and is currently involved in research particularly with young people and brief interventions for alcohol misusers.
Dependence in the young
This paper will discuss the criteria for use, abuse and dependence in young people, the importance of DSM criteria of abuse and dependence and its adequacy in adolescents. It will report the prevalence of substance abuse and dependence diagnoses, the utility of individual criterion and the applicability of the DSM IV substance use disorder categorical framework. The importance of factors, both risk and protective factors, that determine and increase the likelihood of transition from use to regular use and substance use disorders will be discussed. Among these might include age of onset, comorbidity, parental alcoholism and other parental psychopathology, genetic effects and environmental factors. Such information is essential for early prevention of substance use disorders. The relevance of dependence diagnoses and its implications for treatment in this age group win be discussed.