Evidence - Based Practice
Screening and Assessing Adolescent Substance Use Disorders in Clinical Populations

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Screening and Comprehensive Assessment Instruments

Detecting recent drug use with a urine test may have a role in the pediatric or psychiatric setting due to the objective nature of the procedure. However, a positive result is neither diagnostic nor does it provide information about the person's history of drug problems. Also, the time window for detecting drugs varies greatly (e.g., alcohol is only detectable for about 8 hours). The use of self-report and collateral information is important and the most reliable in many instances, so long as

Method Of Administration

Assessment strategies generally consist of a combination of self-report scales (such as the CRAFFT, PESQ, and PEI) and interviews (such as the GAIN and T-ASI). Self-report as a source of diagnostic information is a mainstay in assessment, largely because the method is generally valid25 and the individual is the most knowledgeable source of information.

Self-administered questionnaires (e.g., CRAFFT, PESQ, PEI) are convenient, yet it may be necessary for the assessor to supervise and assist the

Conclusions and Recommendations

Clinicians who work with youths should receive formal training in either medical school or residency in the assessment of substance use and use disorders, and master at least one screen and one comprehensive assessment instrument. The measures described here are suitable not only for initial evaluation but also for periodic reevaluations to measure outcomes of treatment. When choosing which assessment tools to use, one should take into consideration the length of administration time, resources

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  • Cited by (56)

    • Family involvement in treatment and recovery for substance use disorders among transition-age youth: Research bedrocks and opportunities

      2021, Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment
      Citation Excerpt :

      It is well-established that utilizing multiple sources of information to detect youth SU is more accurate than relying on any single source (K.C. Winters, 1999). Recommendations for youth screening also encourage practitioners to ask youth about family substance use, as this is a significant risk factor for youth (K.C. Winters & Kaminer, 2008). To our knowledge there are no evidence-based screening approaches in which family members are systematically recruited to serve as sources of information on youth SU problems.

    • Substance Use Disorders in Vulnerable Children

      2020, Pediatric Clinics of North America
    • Enhancing adolescent SBIRT with a peer-delivered intervention: An implementation study

      2019, Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment
      Citation Excerpt :

      Settings included a school-based resource center in a metro-suburban community in the Southeast, two community behavioral health entities working within school districts in the rural Northeast and suburban Southwest, two adolescent health clinics in urban centers in the Midwest and Southeast, and a general population health center in an urban center in the Northeastern United States (see Table 1). Across settings, youth were screened using the CRAFFT (Knight et al., 2002; Winters & Kaminer, 2008) screening tool during routine SBIRT procedures. Those who were identified as moderate risk (scoring a 0 or 1 on the CRAFFT, which is a non-affirmative response in Part A and a positive response to the Car question in Part B, or an affirmative response in Part A and a score of 0–1 in Part B (Levy & Williams, 2016)), were within the age range of 13 and 17 at the time of screening, spoke English, and were not a ward of the state, met inclusion criteria and were eligible for the study.

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    The authors acknowledge the support of grant K24 AA013442–02 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (Dr. Kaminer) and K02 DA015347 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Dr. Winters).

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