Black, Asian teens less likely than whites to abuse drugs, Duke study concludes

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Black, Asian teens less likely than whites to abuse drugs, Duke study concludes

By Jay Price | McClatchy Newspapers

DURHAM, N.C. — Black and Asian adolescents are much less likely than their white peers to abuse or become dependent on drugs and alcohol, according to a Duke University-led study based on an unusually large sample from all 50 states.

"There is certainly still a myth out there that black kids are more likely to have problems with drugs than white kids, and this documents as clearly as any study we're aware of that the rate of . . . substance-related disorders among African American youths is significantly lower," said Dr. Dan Blazer of Duke's Department of Psychiatry, a senior author of the study.

The findings, based on analysis of confidential federal surveys of 72,561 adolescents ages 12 to 17 from 2005 through 2008, were released Monday and appear in the November issue of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

About 9 percent of the white teenagers in the study sample used substances in ways that indicated they had disorders, meaning abuse or dependency. That's nearly twice the percentage of blacks nearly three times the rate for a group classified as Asian/Pacific Islander, which were mostly Asians.. The prevalence of disorders was by far highest among Native Americans, at 15 percent.



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