Youth Mental Health Matters
We're for the developing brain -- our world's most valuable natural resourceWelcome.
Simply put, this website offers information about child and adolescent mental health — particularly as it relates to substance use and addiction.
Contributors to DrThurstone.com are big believers in evidence-based medicine that has practical, real-world applications — meaning science that has been subjected to the rigorous review of reputable scholars and can be used at home and throughout a community.
We do not have all the answers — but we are confident the information you find here is trustworthy enough to guide your search for them responsibly.
— Dr. Christian Thurstone, M.D.
Chair of Behavioral Health at Denver Health and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado
Featured
Dr. T speaks with NBC News about THC-induced psychosis
Dr. Christian Thurstone spoke with NBC News for this report about teen marijuana use and growing concerns about the rising number of cases of cannabis-induced psychosis. From the report: "As many as half of people with cannabis-induced psychosis may go on to develop...
Dr. T named to prestigious “Top Docs” list
Dr. Christian Thurstone, chair of behavioral health at Denver Health, has been named in the Castle Connolly Top Docs list this year. The selection process is rigorous, and only 7 percent, or about 67,000, of the United States' more than 985,000 practicing physicians...
Program evaluation to aid choice of Aripiprazole or Risperidone for hospitalized adolescents with cannabis use disorder and psychosis
Co-occurring cannabis use and psychosis is an increasing problem. No single behavioral or pharmacologic treatment has emerged as clearly superior. To address the gap, this nonrandomized, quality improvement project compares outcomes for adolescents with co-occurring...
Denver Health opens only licensed adolescent detox center
Denver Health is celebrating the opening of Colorado's first and only licensed detoxification facility for adolescents. The unit is at 723 N. Delaware St., on the second floor of the hospital's Pavilion M building. It is designed...
Marijuana’s health, policy impacts on Colorado and North Carolina
Dr. Christian Thurstone recently spoke with the Triangle Christian Medical and Dental Associations about marijuana's impacts on health and public policy, and he provides an overview of the details of a "medical marijuana" initiative being pushed by (mostly Democratic...
Prevention and Treatment for Families
Help and hope for families wanting to avoid and address problems associated with substance use and addiction.
How parents can help their adolescents not use drugs
The most important thing parents can do for their adolescent with a substance problem is to maintain a positive, warm and loving relationship with him or her because this is the most important tool parents have to shape their child's values and future directions. This...
Parents don’t have to accept youth substance use
These are common questions: If so many teens are using addictive substances such as alcohol, tobacco and marijuana, what's the big deal? Isn't it normal to experiment like this? After all, teens will be teens -- and a lot of parents had their own flings with smokes...
American psychiatric society review: Clearing the Haze ‘commendable effort’
The May 2017 edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry includes a review of our book, "Clearing the Haze: Helping Families Face Teen Addiction." Dr. Christopher Hammond calls it "parent-friendly" and writes: "Thurstone and Tatum...
Get the impACT diagnostic manual
This is the first adaptation of Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) for adolescent substance treatment. The manual is a general guide for treatment using Motivational Interviewing (MI) and Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) principles.
Animal- assisted therapy for impACT
The use of animal-assisted therapy will promote comfort, accelerate rapport-building, encourage trust, elevate mood, reinforce activities of daily living (ADLs), increase interpersonal contact, encourage communication and encourage self-care.
Read the book
Clearing the Haze is a guide designed to help parents determine whether their child may have a substance problem and, if so, how to begin to address it. This book includes the voices and insight of experts in substance abuse counseling, young people in recovery, and parents who have lived the nightmare of adolescent addiction.
Hot Topics, Great Resources
Marijuana
Opiates
Brain Development
Find a Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist
Remember: Adolescent mental health extends to age 25. A great way to find a physician who understands the unique mental health needs of children and adolescents is searching the online member directory of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.