Mental Health of Youth and Substance Use: Mood Disorders in Children and Adolescents

ISSUP Ukraine's Second Webinar in the Three-Part Series on 'Mental Health of Youth and Substance'. This Webinar focuses on Mood Disorders in Children and Adolescents.

The focus of this Series is to raise issues around youth mental health and to bring acknowledgment that is connected with substance use. Three world-known speakers will discuss depression, self-harm, suicide behaviour and comorbidity of mental health and substance use disorders in youth. 

Substance-abusing youth are at higher risk of incurring mental health problems, including depression, personality disorders, suicidal behaviours compared to non-users. Substance abuse may increase symptoms of mental illness or trigger the new one. Similarly, young with depression are at higher risk of using substances. As many young people with mild depression go undiagnosed, the condition can appear to be the result of addiction. Substance use disorders among depressed youths are a risk factor for suicidal behaviours.

Speaker at Second Webinar:
Bennett L. Leventhal, M.D.

Bennett L. Leventhal, M.D. is Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Medical Director of the UCSF Center for Autism Spectrum and Neurodevelopmental Disorders at the University of California San Francisco as well as the Irving B. Harris Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Emeritus, at the University of Chicago and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at Yonsei University in South Korea.  He is a Distinguished Life Fellow of both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and an Honorary Member of the World Psychiatric Association.  His honors and awards include the George Tarjan Award, Outstanding Mentor Award, and Catcher in the Rye Award from the Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, where he also serves as Treasurer and member of the Executive Committee and Council.   He is Past-Chair of WPA Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Treasurer of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.  Dr. Leventhal is active in national and international efforts to promote research and improved care for children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders.  He is an active clinician, educator. and investigator.  His research focuses on disruptions in brain development that interfere with social functioning, including the molecular genetics of autism and the prenatal origins of disruptive behavior disorders with current research programs in integrated pediatric mental health services, pediatric psychopharmacology, bullying, epidemiology, etiology  and treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), with projects with colleagues around the world, including US, Korea, Norway, Georgia, Turkey and Italy.