Oregon Research Institute

Adolescent Substance Abuse: Progressive Treatment

In two studies, researchers are examining the efficacy of eight potential adaptive treatment strategies using the Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial (SMART) design to determine which of two stepped adaptive interventions show better results.

Details

This research study provides a systematic set of optimal decision rules for treatment agencies on how best to proceed when adolescents receiving an initial course of MET/CBT6 show initial treatment response, persist in their substance use, or demonstrate an initial treatment response followed by later relapse. This type of “practical” clinical trial begins the long overdue process of addressing critical gaps between traditional treatment efficacy research and key questions that emerge in clinical practice such as determining when adolescents have received sufficient treatment, how to proceed when initial treatment efforts are not effective, and how best to address relapse.