Caregiver Involvement in Screening and Brief Interventions for Adolescent Alcohol and Other Drug Use in Primary Care: Feasibility, Acceptability, and Utility

Screening and brief intervention (SBI) is widely recommended to promote detection and early intervention for alcohol and other drug (AOD) use in pediatric primary care (PC). This multi-site randomized effectiveness trial screened 550 adolescent-caregiver dyads for AOD use risk factors in 3 urban PC practices. One hundred forty-eight adolescents at-risk for AOD use problems and their caregivers were enrolled in SBI-A-Standard , which included only adolescents in all intervention activities; or SBI-A-Family , which included both adolescents and caregivers in all SBI activities. Compared with SBI-A-Standard, SBI-A-Family procedures identified and provided intervention to more adolescents at risk for AOD use problems (47% of screened dyads vs 24%). Moreover, SBI-A-Family counseling interventions, although more extensive and resource demanding, were administered to 82% of indicated cases and rated near universally as helpful by adolescents, caregivers, and providers. Results of this study demonstrate added value of family-inclusive SBI models for identifying and addressing youth AOD use in PC.