A new AAP policy statement recommends that pediatricians provide substance abuse education and screening to adolescents during routine clinical care, incorporating the universal Screening for Substance Use, Brief Intervention and/or Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) guidelines,
designed by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. In the statement, “Substance Use Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment for Pediatricians,” published in the November 2011 issue of Pediatrics (published online Oct. 31), the AAP recommends that pediatricians become knowledgeable about adolescent
alcohol, cigarette and other drug use trends in their community, and screen all adolescents for alcohol and drug use during all health supervision and appropriate acute care visits using developmentally appropriate screening tools and intervention strategies. Patricia K. Kokotailo, MD, MPH one of the lead authors of a policy statement just issued on screening adolescents for substance abuse comes on the show to discuss these recommendations.
Guest Info
Patricia K. Kokotailo, MD, MPH is a Professor of Pediatrics, Director of Adolescent Medicine, and Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Faculty Affairs at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. She received her MD degree from Northwestern University Medical School and completed her residency in pediatrics and fellowship in adolescent medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. She completed a Masters in Public Health degree in maternal and child health at the University of Illinois-Chicago. For 10 years she was the Director of Pediatric Medical Education at the University of Wisconsin, directing all medical student education programs in pediatrics. She was the Principal Investigator or Co-Director for federally funded, interdisciplinary primary care faculty development grants at the University of Wisconsin for the past 12 years and continues faculty development work on a medical school-wide basis. She was an associate editor for the textbook Pediatrics (Eds. Osborne, DeWitt, First and Zenel, Elsevier, 2005).
She presents extensively in the areas of faculty development in medical education and substance abuse education at the national and international level. She has served as a Visiting Professor at King’s College London. Her research interests are medical education (including faculty development) and high-risk behaviors in adolescents. Her clinical interests include adolescent sexuality; growth and development; alcohol, tobacco and other drug use; and mental health issues in adolescents and young adults. She served as a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Committee on Substance Abuse for 9 years, and is the lead author of the recent AAP policy statement “Alcohol Use by Youth and Adolescents: A Pediatric Concern”, produced by this committee.
