Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.
Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, Mass General Hospital for Children, Boston, Massachusetts.
Pediatrics. 2022 Jun 1;149(6). doi: 10.1542/peds.2022-057529.
Pediatricians across the United States encounter infants, children, adolescents, young adults, and families affected by substance use disorders in their daily practice. For much of history, substance use has been viewed as a moral failing for which individuals themselves are to blame; however, as addiction became understood as a medical disorder, clinical terminology has shifted along with a growing awareness of harm of stigmatizing language in medicine. In issuing this policy statement, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) joins other large organizations in providing recommendations regarding medically accurate, person-first, and nonstigmatizing terminology. As the first pediatric society to offer guidance on preferred language regarding substance use to be used among pediatricians, media, policymakers, and government agencies and in its own peer-reviewed publications, the AAP aims to promote child health by highlighting the specific context of infants, children, adolescents, young adults, and families. In this policy statement, the AAP provides 3 specific recommendations, accompanied by a table that presents a summary of problematic language to be avoided, paired with the recommended more appropriate language and explanations for each. Pediatricians have an important role in advocating for the health of children and adolescents in the context of families affected by substance use and are optimally empowered to do so by avoiding the use of stigmatizing language in favor of medically accurate terminology that respects the dignity and personhood of individuals with substance use disorders and the children and adolescents raised in families affected by substance use.
美国各地的儿科医生在日常实践中都会遇到患有物质使用障碍的婴儿、儿童、青少年、年轻成年人和家庭。在历史的大部分时间里，人们一直认为物质使用是一种道德缺陷，应该归咎于个人本身；然而，随着人们逐渐认识到成瘾是一种医学疾病，临床术语也发生了变化，同时人们也越来越意识到医学语言中污名化语言的危害。在发布这项政策声明时，美国儿科学会 (AAP) 与其他大型组织一起，就医学上准确、以人为主导、非污名化的术语提供建议。作为第一个为儿科医生、媒体、政策制定者、政府机构以及自己的同行评议出版物提供关于物质使用相关语言建议的儿科专业协会，AAP 旨在通过突出婴儿、儿童、青少年、年轻成年人和家庭的具体情况，促进儿童健康。在这项政策声明中，AAP 提供了 3 项具体建议，并附有一个表格，其中列出了需要避免的有问题的语言，并为每种语言提供了更合适的语言和解释。儿科医生在倡导受物质使用影响的家庭中儿童和青少年的健康方面发挥着重要作用，他们通过避免使用污名化语言，转而使用尊重有物质使用障碍的个人的尊严和人格的医学术语，从而能够更好地发挥这一作用。
