Citation

Mason MJ, Sabo R, Zaharakis NM. J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs 2017; 78(1): 152-157.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, Commonwealth Institute for Child & Family Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Alcohol Research Documentation, Inc., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

27936376

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: A small body of evidence supports targeting adolescents who are heavy users of cannabis with brief interventions, yet more research is needed to confirm the effectiveness of these studies. We conducted a secondary analysis of our Peer Network Counseling (PNC) study (Mason et al., 2015), focusing on 46 adolescents of the sample of 119 who reported heavy cannabis use at baseline.

METHOD: Urban adolescents (91% African American) presenting for primary health care were randomized to intervention or control conditions and followed for 6 months. We selected cases (n = 46) to analyze based on heavy cannabis use reported at baseline (≥10 times in past month). The ordinal response data (cannabis use) were modeled using a mixed-effects proportional odds model, including fixed effects for treatment, time, and their interaction, and a subject-level random effect.

RESULTS: In the subsample of adolescents with heavy cannabis use, those assigned to PNC had a 35.9% probability of being abstinent at 6 months, compared with a 13.2% probability in the control condition. Adolescents in the PNC condition had a 16.6% probability of using cannabis 10 or more times per month, compared with a 38.1% probability in the control condition. This differs from results of the full sample (N = 119), where no significant effects on cannabis use were found.

CONCLUSIONS: PNC increased the probability of abstinence and reduced heavy cannabis use. These results provide initial support for PNC as a model for brief treatment with non-treatment seeking adolescents who are heavy users of cannabis.

Language: en