Screening and Brief Intervention

The American Academy of Pediatrics has released a policy brief “Substance Use Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment for Pediatricians” that is in line with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s recommendation to ensure that universal screening for substance use, brief intervention, and/or referral to treatment (SBIRT) become a part of routine and comprehensive pediatric care.

College students who post references to getting drunk, blacking out, or other aspects of dangerous drinking on social networking sites are more likely to have clinically significant alcohol problems than students who do not post such references, according to a study supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

While fewer youth and adults smoke tobacco today than a decade ago, national data shows that those declines are leveling off. That's why CADCA and the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at the University of California, San Francisco are working together to prevent tobacco use and to help people quit smoking.

Community coalitions wanting to initiate or strengthen relationships with their local college campuses might take a lesson from the Texans Standing Tall's Nicole Holt and Drew Brooks who will present a workshop on "Catching Problems Upstream: Earlier Screening and Brief Motivational Interviewing" at CADCA's 21st annual National Leadership Forum.

A lack of mandated training for physicians has helped end a U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposal intended to curb misuse of prescription drugs, the New York Times reported July 23.

Research shows that screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment by doctors in primary care settings can help reduce drug and alcohol use. However, few physicians are currently doing this as part of their practice. New tools unveiled by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) on Monday hope to change that.