Anxiety Disorder, Depressive Disorder, Substance-Related Disorders
Conditions
Brief summary
Adolescent substance abuse results in significant negative outcomes and extraordinary costs for youths, their families, communities, and society. Moreover, rates of psychiatric comorbidity among substance abusing youth range from 25% up to 82%, and youths with a dual diagnosis are more than twice as costly to treat compared to those with no comorbidity. The applicant principal investigator recently completed a pilot project funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse focused on developing and piloting a psychosocial treatment specifically for youth presenting for outpatient treatment with co-occurring substance use and internalizing (i.e., mood and/or anxiety) problems. Results were promising with the experimental group exhibiting significantly less substance use and more rapid reductions in anxiety and depressive symptoms compared to the control group. The proposed research is a randomized clinical trial (RCT) to compare the experimental treatment (OutPatient Treatment for Adolescents; OPT-A) to an "active placebo" on key clinical indices from pre-treatment through 18 months. The proposed RCT (n = 160) employs the treatment manual, quality assurance protocol, and therapist training protocol developed and successfully tested in the pilot study, to evaluate the efficacy of OPT-A for youth referred to outpatient treatment of co-occurring substance use and internalizing problems. The following outcomes will be evaluated: drug use; mental health; behavioral, school, peer, and family functioning; and consumer satisfaction. The intervention addresses one of the more prevalent and most challenging, costly, and understudied presenting problems among adolescent outpatients. If successful, this research could provide a considerable contribution in the treatment field for youth with co-occurring substance use and internalizing disorders.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALOutPatient Treatment for Adolescents (OPT-A)
BEHAVIORALTreatment As Usual
Sponsors
Medical University of South Carolina
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
10 Years to 17 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* 10 to 17 years of age * Residing with at least one adult caregiver who serves as a parent figure * In need of treatment for a Substance Abuse or Dependence Disorder * In need of treatment for an Axis I Mood Disorder and/or Anxiety Disorder
Exclusion criteria
* Pervasive Developmental Disorder * Active Psychotic Disorder * Severe or profound mental retardation
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Substance use | baseline and 1-, 2-, 3-, 6-, 12-, and 18-month follow-up |
| Mental Health | baseline and 1-, 2-, 3-, 6-, 12-, and 18-month follow-up |
Countries
United States
Contacts
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORAshli J Sheidow, PhD
Medical University of South Carolina, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Family Services Research Center
Outcome results
None listed