HTH 3533: Drugs and Health (Quackenbush)

Readings and Sources for Prof. Quackenbush's HTH 3533 course.

Drug Use Interventions

SBIRT for adolescent drug and alcohol use: Current status and future directions
Adolescence is a period of rapid biological, psychological, and social development in the human life cycle. Drug and alcohol misuse during this critical period poses substantial problems for individual and public health, yet is highly prevalent in the United States and elsewhere. The screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) model may be well-suited for identifying and intervening with adolescents who are at-risk of developing substance use disorders and those adolescents whose substance use puts them at risk for injury or illness. This article reviews the literature on SBIRT for adolescent populations, focusing on findings from randomized controlled trials. The limited evidence suggests that brief interventions may be effective with adolescents, but a number of gaps in the literature were identified. Considerations for implementing SBIRT with adolescent populations are discussed. Randomized trials are needed that have adequate statistical power, employ longer-term follow-ups, and test the effectiveness of SBIRT for adolescents in various service delivery settings.

SBIRT Overview

SBIRT is a comprehensive, integrated, public health approach to the delivery of early intervention and treatment services for persons with substance use disorders and those who are at risk of developing these disorders.

The SBIRT Process

A demonstration

Disease Control Priorities-- Chapter 6 Illicit Drug Dependence by Vikram Patel (Editor); Daniel Chisholm (Editor); Tarun Dua (Editor); Ramanan Laxminarayan (Editor); Maria Lena Medina-Mora (Editor); Theo Vos (Editor)
ISBN: 9781464804267
Publication Date: 2016-03-10
This chapter is concerned with cannabis, amphetamine, and opioid dependence. The chapter identifies disease control priorities for illicit drug dependence in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). First, we describe patterns of dependence and the disease burden (mortality, morbidity, and societal economic costs) attributable to dependence, by global region. Second, we summarize evidence on the effectiveness of interventions to reduce illicit drug dependence and the harm caused by such dependence. Finally, we consider the extent to which research on illicit drug dependence in high-income countries (HICs) is relevant to disease control priorities in LMICs.

A Systematic Review of Smartphone Applications for Smoking Cessation
Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the USA. However, limited data exists regarding smoking cessation mobile app quality and intervention effectiveness. Innovative and scalable interventions are needed to further alleviate the public health implications of tobacco addiction. The proliferation of the smartphone and the advent of mobile phone health interventions have made treatment more accessible than ever. The purpose of this review was to examine the relation between published scientific literature and available commercial smartphone health apps for smoking cessation to identify the percentage of scientifically supported apps that were commercially available to consumers and to determine how many of the top commercially available apps for smoking cessation were supported by the published scientific literature. Adhering to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, apps were reviewed in four phases: (1) identified apps from the scientific literature, (2) searched app stores for apps identified in the literature, (3) identified top apps available in leading app stores, and (4) determined which top apps available in stores had scientific support. Seven articles identified six apps with some level of scientific support, three (50%) were available in at least one app store. Conversely, among the top 50 apps suggested by each of the leading app stores, only two (4%) had any scientific support. While half of the scientifically vetted apps remain available to consumers, they are difficult to find among the many apps that are identified through app store searches.
Computerized v. In-person Brief Intervention for Drug Misuse: A Randomized Clinical Trial
Several studies have found that brief interventions (BIs) for drug misuse have superior effectiveness to no-treatment controls. However, many health centers do not provide BIs for drug use consistently due to insufficient behavioral health staff capacity. Computerized BIs for drug use are a promising approach, but their effectiveness compared with in-person BIs has not been established. This study compared the effectiveness of a computerized brief intervention (CBI) to an in-person brief intervention (IBI) delivered by a behavioral health counselor.