Patricia Conrod
Credit: Courtesy
A new randomized controlled trial involving experimental and control groups in Canada has demonstrated the effectiveness of a brief cognitive-behavioral intervention program in reducing substance use disorders (SUDs) in adolescents.
Published yesterday in the American Journal of Psychiatry, the study shows that students who attended two 90-minute workshops in the first year of high school had significantly fewer problems with drugs and alcohol by the time they graduated.
The study was led by Patricia Conrod, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Addictology at Université de Montréal and researcher at CHU Sainte-Justine, the university's affiliated children's hospital.
3,800 students involved
Conrod and her research team followed 3,800 students in 31 schools in the Greater Montreal area between 2012 and 2017, from Grades 7 to 11. Some of the schools offered the PreVenture program to Grade 7 students deemed at risk based on their results on a questionnaire which assessed four personality traits: impulsivity, thrill-seeking, anxiety sensitivity and hopelessness.
Statistical analyses of the results showed an increase in SUDs in all schools between Grades 7 and 11, and found that 10 per cent of the students met the diagnostic criteria for these disorders by the end of high school. In those who followed the workshops, however, the increase was much less pronounced.
Depending on the year analyzed, the risk of developing SUDs was reduced by 23 to 80 per cent among the students who did the workshops, compared to those who did not.
"With just two 90-minute workshops, the program was able to protect young people against the risk of long-term substance use disorders," said Conrod, who also holds the Canada Research Chair in Preventive Mental Health and Addiction. "This is particularly promising in the current context of North America's addiction crisis."
The PreVenture program is today offered in schools in five Canadian provinces as well as in 12 U.S. states. The interventions help young people explore individual differences in personality traits and the coping strategies they can use to help manage their personality. In the workshops, they also learn about cognitive and behavioural strategies that will help them to channel key personality traits towards long-term goals.
"Individual differences in personality are essential to a healthy and diversified society," said Conrod. "However, when certain personality traits are mismanaged, some young people will turn to substances to temporarily reduce the stress they feel. By teaching them other, more effective strategies in early adolescence, we can help them better manage everyday challenges."
"Prevention is one of the most effective and rewarding measures when it comes to drug use among young people," said Julie Bruneau, an UdeM professor of family medicine who holds the Canada Research Chair in Addiction Medicine and is scientific director of the Quebec arm of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research's Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Matters.
"This study provides robust, clear Quebec data that can be translated into concrete action," Bruneau said. "It's invaluable, and gives us hope that this intervention will soon be available to all young people in Quebec."
About this study
"Five-year outcomes of a school-based personality-focused prevention program on adolescent substance use disorder: a cluster randomized trial," by Patricia Conrod et al., was published Jan. 15, 2025 in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
