Adolescent alcohol and other drug abuse were once seen as bigger problems in the industrialized world than in the developing world, but substance abuse now plays a major role in deaths, injury and illness among youth in poorer countries, as well, according to a new study.

Medical News Today reported March 27 that researchers from Deaken University in Australia and the University of Victoria in Canada found that alcohol and other drug abuse now rank among the top ten contributors to global disease burden among adolescents, as measured in disability-adjusted life-years. Among 15- to 29-year-olds in economically developed countries, alcohol contributed to 27 percent of deaths, while illicit drugs contributed to 4 percent of deaths.

Part of the problem is that knowledge about adolescent addiction and treatment is lacking, and that which exists is largely confined to a few high-income nations.

"Although developing countries have something to learn from the experiences of industrialised countries, success in preventing substance use and reducing related harms will come not in the application of one strategy or group of strategies, but by addressing the issue within the context of developmental planning," wrote Isadore Obot of the World Health Organization in an accompanying commentary.

"These are countries faced with the reality of poverty; where drug policy is often limited to law enforcement, prevention is sporadic ... resources are limited, and drugs and alcohol problems compete with what policymakers might regard as more immediate problems of survival."

The report appears in the March 24, 2007 issue of The Lancet.