We aimed to complete an integrative summary of current knowledge of the effectiveness of interventions designed to prevent and reduce the major harms associated with adolescent substance use. The co-authors, selected because of their expertise in specific areas of work in this area, supplemented recently completed comprehensive systematic reviews53, 57 using the PubMed, Psychlit, and Google scholar electronic databases, and keyword and text searches relevant to (adolescen*) and (alcohol or drug
SeriesInterventions to reduce harm associated with adolescent substance use
Section snippets
Patterns and trends
Data from clinical populations are clearly inadequate for monitoring population trends in adolescent substance use. Representative household surveys are done in several countries19, 20, 21, 22 and offer the prospect of including young people who are not in school, but have weaknesses such as low response rates and failure to include homeless young people.20
In developed nations, universal schooling provides quite comprehensive capture of student populations, offering the potential to monitor
Intervention conceptual models and frameworks
In 1998 the UN called for a balanced approach to drug policies aimed at reducing both supply and demand.31 Efforts to reduce supply, primarily through law enforcement punishment for possession and distribution (ie, the War on Drugs), have remained the primary focus in many countries including the USA and UK.32, 33, 34 Other countries, such as Australia, have achieved better balance, implementing supply-reduction strategies designed to disrupt production and supply of illicit drugs,
Evidence for different interventions
In the following sections, we present the major interventions that have evidence for successful reduction of adolescent substance use and related harm. These interventions address different developmental stages and motives for substance use. We assess evidence for supply-reduction (regulatory) interventions, the demand-reduction strategies of developmental prevention intervention, early screening and brief intervention, and treatment and harm-reduction interventions. Table 3 summarises the main
Conclusions
Substance use, especially heavy use of alcohol and illicit drugs, contributes substantially to the burden of disease in adolescents. Evidence suggests that rates of tobacco use, harmful alcohol use, and illicit drug use in young people can be reduced through the concerted application of a combination of regulatory, early-intervention, and harm-reduction approaches. Reviews have called for a more concerted effort to address harms associated with youth alcohol use through regulatory strategies
Search strategy
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Cited by (349)
Perceived racial discrimination and polysubstance use among racial/ethnic minority adolescents in the United States
2023, Drug and Alcohol DependenceSubstance use prevention during adolescence: Study protocol for a large-scale cluster randomized trial of Botvin High School LifeSkills Training
2023, Contemporary Clinical TrialsCitation Excerpt :This evaluation will determine whether HS-LST is effective for preventing or reducing these outcomes, and whether it demonstrates sufficient positive evidence for wide-scale adoption. Further, it will add to the research base of effective, relatively brief, and cost-effective high school-based substance use prevention programs [10,14,58] aimed toward decreasing the burden of disease from adolescence into adulthood. This research is supported by Arnold Ventures.
Child-centred harm reduction
2022, International Journal of Drug PolicyExamining the Effectiveness of the FaCES Adolescent SBIRT Intervention
2022, Journal of Adolescent HealthMobile-based brief interventions targeting cannabis-impaired driving among youth: A Delphi study
2022, Journal of Substance Abuse TreatmentCitation Excerpt :Brief interventions provide education and motivation in a short time frame, often using techniques consistent with motivational interviewing (Miller et al., 2019; Miller & Rollnick, 2012). Brief interventions have reduced youth substance use and related consequences in several settings (e.g., hospital emergency departments, universities, jails, primary care) and across professions (e.g., nurses, physicians, counsellors, prohibition officers, and psychologists) (Miller et al., 2019; Tait & Hulse, 2003; Tevyaw & Monti, 2004; Toumbourou et al., 2007). Counsellor-delivered brief interventions have successfully reduced alcohol use and alcohol-related problems (e.g., impaired driving) among youth (Cronce & Larimer, 2012; D'Amico et al., 2018; Scott-Sheldon et al., 2014; Teeters et al., 2015).