Most Active Stories Shots - Health Blog Fri November 18, 2011
When to Worry About Smart Kids and Drugs All parents hope their
children will be smart. But no parents want their children to
grow up to have problems with drugs like cocaine, marijuana and
amphetamines. So it's no surprise that a study out this week
linking high IQ in children with illegal drug use as adults has
been giving parents the willies. "I think it's kind of scary
that this article is out there," says Lisa Boesky, a mom in San
Diego. Boesky's speaking not just as a parent, but as an expert
on parental worries. She's a psychologist, and author of the
book When to Worry: How to Tell if Your Teen Needs Help — And
What To Do About It. She has nits to pick with the IQ-and-drugs
study, which was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and
Community Health. There are plenty of well-known risk factors
for substance and alcohol abuse, and being smart isn't among
them. Think instead of family history; untreated mental health
problems like ADHD, dep