Help for Parents of Struggling Teens

Looking for a teen help program?

Call (866) 845-1390

Fat Camp
Learn about why fat camps don’t work and why the new healthy weight loss camps are so much more effective. more >>

Featured Programs

EXCEL ACADEMYEXCEL ACADEMY is an alternative to military schools in Texas. EXCEL ACADEMY boasts a compelling history of success with students who have had previous school or therapeutic failures. EXCEL ACADEMY offers an intensely effective milieu without the look and feel of traditional programs and places a heavy emphasis on ensuring that all students feel safe and part of "the family" regardless of past environment, behavior, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or history of abuse or trauma.

SunHawk Academy is a licensed adolescent residential treatment center and boarding school. A combination of an intense clinical intervention with an accredited academic program, SunHawk treats struggling teens 13-17 with behavioral and substance abuse problems. Personal growth of students is encouraged through extensive therapeutic activities and the "Life Skills Training" component of the program gives each child extensive exposure to real life experiences.

Brain's Executive Control Function Linked to Substance Abuse in Teens

A new government study done at the University of Pittsburgh found that teenagers who have deficits in the parts of the brain that control executive function are more likely to become addicted to drugs.

"Executive cognitive function is basically the control center for governing other cognitive processes," said Rebecca Landes McNamee, author and assistant research professor of radiology and bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh. "For example, in school, ECF would be engaged in the planning and control process required in answering a question, formulating your response, raising your hand, waiting until you are called upon, and starting your answer. A person with low levels of ECF might blurt out the answer. Another example could be interacting with someone on the playground who upsets you. A person with good ECF will think through the actions and consequences of their behavior rather than responding rashly. A person with low levels of ECF may respond with violence."

Researchers performed eye movement tests and MRIs of brain activity on 25 teenagers. Teens that had a high amount of neurobehavioral disinhibition were more likely to have a history of substance abuse.

This study appears in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Return to the Teen Help Directory >>