Adolescent substance-abuse disorders are a predictor of young-adult mortality, new research from the University of Pittsburgh concludes.

Medical News Today reported June 20 that researcher Duncan B. Clark, M.D., and colleagues found that young adult males with substance-abuse disorders had a mortality rate far in excess of the norm for their non-addicted contemporaries. For example, 2 percent of the adolescents studied had died by the time the eight-year study period ended, including 23 percent of the African-American males in the study.

"The fact that these were, to an extent, predictable deaths raises additional concerns about the hazards of alcohol and drug problems in teens and young adults," said Clark.

The study appears in the Journal of Adolescent Health.