Clinical issues concerning alcoholic youthful narcotic abusers.

The combined addictive diseases of alcoholism and narcotics addiction are as common in the adolescent as in the adult population and have profound effects on health and outcome. Therefore proper clinical management of these patients requires the best available treatment of both the narcotic addiction and the best available treatment of the alcohol abuse problem. Alcoholism per se does not have negative effect on MMTP retention. Although methadone maintenance has been shown to be effective in the treatment of narcotics addiction in adolescents as well as in adults, methods and resources for the management of alcohol abuse within the modality are meager, parochial, and poorly defined. Future efforts must be directed towards developing more effective models for the treatment of the combined addictions.