Short-term Intervention Programs have Potential to Reduce Teen Methamphetamine Use
From EurekAlert! - Breaking News:
Brief school- and family-based intervention programs may reduce methamphetamine use among adolescents, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Because of the devastating consequences, prevention is key, the authors write; however, few studies have assessed the effect of preventive programs on the methamphetamine problem.
In the first study, 667 sixth-graders were assigned to a control group (208) or to one of the two programs (238 to Iowa Strengthening Families Program and 221 to Preparing for the Drug-Free Years).
Of those, 457 families participated in a follow-up when the children were in 12th grade.
In the second study, 679 seventh-graders were also divided into three groups: 226 completed a revised version of the Iowa Strengthening Families Program plus a separate program called Life Skills Training; 231 did Life Skills Training only; and 222 served as controls.
Methamphetamine use rates among the control groups were similar to rates found in national surveys--in study one, five students (3.2 percent) of the 156 in the control group had used methamphetamines in the past year at the 12th-grade follow-up.
Editor's Note: This study was supported by a research grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health and by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
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