16/01/2025
Cognitive behavioral program co-developed by Dalhousie University researcher yields promising results in preventing transition to substance use disorders in teenagers
https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.20240042
https://preventureprogram.com/
Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025 (Halifax) - Brief cognitive behavioral interventions that help young people manage aspects of their personality, such as impulsivity, sensation seeking, sensitivity to anxiety and negative thinking, have been shown to reduce teen substance use disorders.
Today, the American Journal of Psychiatry published the findings of a new cluster randomized trial involving 31 Canadian high schools and 3,800 students. The study, led by researchers at Dalhousie University and the University of Montreal, showed that when such interventions are delivered to students in Grade 7, they are associated with reduced risk for substance use disorders by Grade 11.
The team used PreVenture, a school-based preventative mental health intervention program developed by Dr. Sherry Stewart of Dalhousie and Dr. Patricia Conrod at the University of Montreal, which is already used in schools in five Canadian provinces and 12 U.S. states. The interventions help young people explore individual differences in personality traits and the coping strategies they are using to manage their personality. They are also taught cognitive and behavioral strategies that will help them channel key personality traits towards long-term goals.
Their trial showed that intervention delivered in Grade 7 was associated with reduced growth in substance use disorder by as much as 80 per cent compared to schools that did not use the interventions.
Individual differences in personality are essential to a healthy society. However, when certain personality traits are mismanaged, young people may turn to substances to reduce the stress brought about by certain traits.
"By providing adaptive coping skills training to youth that is specific to their unique needs, we can delay early onset substance use to cope and thereby help protect our youth from developing full-blown substance use disorders in the longer term," says psychiatry professor Dr. Stewart, director of the Mood, Anxiety and Addiction Comorbidity (MAAC) Lab at Dalhousie and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Addiction and Mental Health.
The study was conducted in collaboration with 31 high schools in the Greater Montreal Area. It is part of the CoVenture trial, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and aimed at testing whether the PreVenture program could reduce risk for substance use disorder over a five-year period in adolescence. Students completed a brief personality questionnaire in Grade 7 that assesses impulsivity, sensation seeking, anxiety sensitivity and negative thinking. Schools assisted in delivering personality-targeted brief cognitive behavioural interventions to students who reported elevated scores on one of the four traits. All students were followed every year for five years on school-based digital assessments.
"Given the ongoing addiction crisis in Canada and across North America, this trial provides crucial evidence of the importance of governments investing in school-based prevention as part of the tools we should be using to combat addiction in our youth," says Dr. Stewart.
The team is conducting another trial, called the Canadian Underage Substance Prevention (CUSP) Trial, in schools in three Canadian provinces including Nova Scotia, to study the best ways to put this effective program into practice.
"Our experience implementing and scaling PreVenture in schools, Integrated Youth Services and other community-based settings in Ontario has been exceptional. By prioritizing prevention, PreVenture supports creating environments for youth that foster healthy decision-making and reduces the likelihood of substance use. There isn't any other program with the evidence base like it," says Deb Chiodo, director of Data Management and Evaluation at Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario.
Author contact:
Dr. Sherry Stewart
MAAC Lab
Dalhousie University
Phone: 902-494-3793
Email: sstewart@dal.ca
Media contact:
Alison Auld
Senior Research Reporter
Dalhousie University
Cell: 1-902-220-0491
Email: alison.auld@dal.ca
A Preventive Mental HealthProgram for Teens Learn.Live.Thrive learn.live.thrive. LEARN MORE Mental Health as Prevention PreVenture® is a prevention program for
