Best Practices: Substance Use Disorder Treatment for Adolescents

Best practices in substance use disorder treatment for adolescents is a focus for treatment providers and researchers. NIDA (2014a) reported that drug use is highest among people in their late teens. With different drugs of use widely available to teenagers, it is important that treatment providers offer appropriate research based treatments that match each client’s drugs of use. These authors review the best practices for adolescent substance use disorder treatment which are outlined by National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) and include: family involvement, motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioral approaches, adolescent brain considerations, and 12-step facilitation. In addition these authors include discussion and review research focused on current trends of mindfulness and spirituality. How these recommended practices are applied to adolescent substance use disorder treatment requires special attention, so implications for treatments providers are provided.