Brief Intervention for Families of Teens Treated in the Emergency Department for an Alcohol-Related Event

Brown University

Status and phase: Completed; Phase 1

Conditions: Alcohol Abuse

Treatments: Behavioral: MI only; Behavioral: MI/Family Check-up

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT00247221

R01AA013385 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

NIAAASPI013385

NIH grant R01 AA013385

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness of a brief family intervention in reducing alcohol use and alcohol-related problems among families of underage drinkers (13-17 years old) who are treated in a hospital emergency department for an alcohol-related event.

Full description

The long-term objectives of this research program are to develop effective interventions in health care settings for reducing problem drinking and associated problems among adolescents and to further enhance intervention approaches by identifying effective elements of treatment. The major purpose of this study is to compare a brief integrated individual and family intervention designed to reduce alcohol use and related problems to an enhanced standard care condition (standard care plus family assessment).

The targeted population is underage drinkers (13-17 years old) who have been treated in an Emergency Department following an alcohol-related event. It is important to intervene with this population because alcohol-involved adolescents may be at higher risk for having continuing alcohol problems (Fillmore, 1988; Zucker, in press). The intervention is conceptualized as using a "teachable moment" (i.e., shortly after a salient event) to increase family interest in reducing harmful drinking. The experimental intervention integrates an individual Motivational Interview (MI) for the adolescent, based on our research group's prior work with this intervention, with a brief family intervention, the Family Check-Up (Dishion & Kavanagh, 2003).

The experimental condition will be compared to standard care plus family assessment. This design allows us to test the added benefit of the brief family intervention compared to the benefits often derived from assessment without added treatment. Follow-up interviews will be conducted at 3, 6, and 12 months after the baseline intervention to assess outcome. The specific aims of this proposal are to test the effectiveness of the experimental intervention in reducing alcohol-related problems, alcohol consumption, and other behavior problems compared to the enhanced standard care condition. Second, we will examine whether depressed mood and behavior problems at baseline moderate the effects of the treatment conditions. We will also test whether individual factors (motivation to change behavior) and environmental factors (parent/family influence and peer influence) mediate the relation between the treatment condition and outcomes.

Enrollment: 208 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 13 to 17 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Child aged 13-17 years
• Receiving treatment at the approved medical Emergency Department
• Child living in a home with at least one parent or legal guardian

Exclusion criteria

• Children who are suicidal, in police custody, not alert/oriented, non-English speaking, in severe pain, or who have sustained severe trauma
• Children with a history of prior substance abuse treatment

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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208 participants in 2 patient groups

1) MI/Family Check-Up

Experimental group

Description:

Brief integrated individual and family intervention -- the experimental intervention integrates an individual Motivational Interview (MI) for the adolescent with a brief family intervention, the Family Check-Up

Treatment:

Behavioral: MI/Family Check-up

2) MI only

Active Comparator group

Treatment:

Behavioral: MI only