Brief Substance Abuse Treatment with Urban Adolescents: A Translational Research Study

The purpose of this translational research study was to test a brief, manualized adolescent substance abuse treatment protocol's effects in an urban community setting compared to a sample in an experimental study from which the treatment was first employed. One hundred two adolescents who were treated with a manualized protocol of five sessions of Motivational Enhancement Therapy/Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (MET/CBT-5) were followed for six months and outcomes were analyzed against a comparison sample (n=102). Both groups were treated with (MET/CBT-5). The community setting group showed reduced alcohol use relative to the comparison group at six months using unadjusted measures and at three and six months using propensity score analyses to adjust for the differences in baseline characteristics of the two groups. These findings support using brief, manualized treatments for diverse, urban adolescents in outpatient community settings.