Y. Kaminer et Ja. Burleson, Psychotherapies for adolescent substance abusers: 15-month follow-up of a pilot study, AM J ADDICT, 8(2), 1999, pp. 114-119
In order to test the hypothesis that adolescent substance abusers could be
matched to effective treatment lts on the basis of their comorbid psychopat
hology; 32 dually diagnosed adolescents were randomized into two short-term
outpatient groups psychotherapies. cognitive-behavioural treatment (CBT) a
nd international treatment (IT). Two follow-up assessments were conducted a
t 3 and 15 months after planned treatment completion. As reported recently
at the three-month follow-up, no patient-treatment matching effects were id
entified. However, adolescents assigned to CBT demonstrated a significant r
eduction in severity, of substance abuse compared to those assigned to IT.
Ar 15-month follow-up, there were no differential improvements ns a functio
n of therapy type However, subjects in general maintained significant treat
ment gains on the substance abuse, family function, and psychiatric status
domains of the Teen-Addiction Severity Index (T-ASI), and both CBT and IT w
ere associated with similar long-term gains. Large scale, randomized, contr
olled treatment studies are further recommended to examine the findings of
this small-scale pilot study.