Prevention and Reduction of Alcohol and Drug Problems in a Clinical Psychiatric Youth Population

S

St. Justine's Hospital

Status

Unknown

Conditions

Conduct Disorder

Anxiety Disorder

Drug Abuse

Alcohol Abuse

Mood Disorder

Treatments

Behavioral: Personality-targeted interventions

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT01595568

CER CHU Ste-Justine 3435

Details and patient eligibility

About

In adolescents, mental health problems are frequently associated with substance misuse, even considered a risk factor for alcohol abuse and dependence. This dual diagnosis tends to complicate the patient's treatment and prognosis by increasing, among others, substance use problems, reckless behaviours, relationships and school problems and suicidal thoughts. It is therefore critical to invest time and effort into developing an efficient approach to prevent and reduce substance use problems and offer these children a more global and optimal treatment.

A brief personality-targeted intervention was developed with students of Canadian and English high schools based on four personality factors known to be implicated in the vulnerability to adolescent alcohol misuse (Impulsivity, Anxiety Sensitivity, Negative Thinking and Sensation Seeking) (Conrod et al., 2006,2008, O'Leary-Barrett 2010).

By helping the adolescents to develop better adaptive behaviours, this cognitive-behavioural intervention proved to reduce binge drinking, quantity and frequency of use and substance use problems (Conrod et al., 2006,2011).

The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of this intervention if combined to a regular treatment in a youth psychiatric population.

60 patients aged 14-17 years of a Child and Adolescent psychiatric department will be screened for personality risk with self-report assessments including the Substance Use Risk Profile Scale. Participants will be randomly assigned to a personality matched cognitive-behavioural intervention or a no-intervention control.

The main outcome measures of this study are alcohol and illicit drug outcomes. Secondary measures include mental health symptoms.

Trial design

Primary purpose

Prevention

Allocation

Randomized

Interventional model

Factorial Assignment

Masking

None (Open label)

60 participants in 4 patient groups

Learning to cope with your impulsivity

Experimental group

Description:

Cognitive-behavioural intervention targeting impulsive personality

Treatment:

Behavioral: Personality-targeted interventions

Learning to cope with your sensation seeking

Experimental group

Description:

Cognitive behavioural intervention designed to help sensation seeking youth manage their need for stimulation and excitement.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Personality-targeted interventions

Learning to cope with your anxiety sensitivity

Experimental group

Description:

Cognitive behavioural intervention teaching anxiety sensitive youth to manager their sensitivity to threat and anxiety.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Personality-targeted interventions

Learning to manage your negative thinking

Experimental group

Description:

Cognitive behavioural intervention targeting pessimistic and negative thinking in hopeless youth

Treatment:

Behavioral: Personality-targeted interventions

Trial contacts and locations

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Central trial contact

Eveline Perrier-Ménard, MD