Peer Network Counseling as Brief Treatment for Urban Adolescent Heavy Cannabis Users

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Objective: A small body of evidence supports targeting adolescents who are heavy users of cannabis with brief interventions, yet more research is needed to confirm the effectiveness of these studies. We conducted a secondary analysis of our Peer Network Counseling (PNC) study (Mason et al., 2015), focusing on 46 adolescents of the sample of 119 who reported heavy cannabis use at baseline. Method: Urban adolescents (91% African American) presenting for primary health care were randomized to intervention or control conditions and followed for 6 months. We selected cases (n = 46) to analyze based on heavy cannabis use reported at baseline ( 10 times in past month). The ordinal response data (cannabis use) were modeled using a mixed-effects proportional odds model, including fixed effects for treatment, time, and their interaction, and a subject-level random effect. Results: In the subsample of adolescents with heavy cannabis use, those assigned to PNC had a 35.9% probability of being abstinent at 6 months, compared with a 13.2% probability in the control condition. Adolescents in the PNC condition had a 16.6% probability of using cannabis 10 or more times per month, compared with a 38.1% probability in the control condition. This differs from results of the full sample (N = 119), where no significant effects on cannabis use were found. Conclusions: PNC increased the probability of abstinence and reduced heavy cannabis use. These results provide initial support for PNC as a model for brief treatment with non-treatmentseeking adolescents who are heavy users of cannabis. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 78, 152-157, 2017)

A pilot trial of text-delivered peer network counseling to treat young adults with cannabis use disorder

“…The potential to reduce cannabis related problems is promising as is the finding that CUD severity level moderates PNC-txt. This finding supports our previous work with the PNC-in-person version, which demonstrated improved treatment effects with adolescents who were heavy users of cannabis (Mason et al, 2016c). These results may have been influenced by seaonality, as recruitment occurred near the end of a semester (March to May), the reporting of problems could be decreased due to reduced academic workload and the anticipation of summer.…”

Extrinsic Factors Influencing the Person’s Motivation for Engagement and Retention in the Addiction Recovery Process. A Systematic Literature Review

“…Peer support A six-month RCT of 119 adolescents with alcohol and cannabis use problems, in the United States, compared peer network-led intervention, promotion of motivation through rapport, acceptance, reflections, and non-confrontation with standardized addiction treatment protocols. [35] The study found marginally significant positive peer network intervention outcomes only in alcohol use via reduced social stress (R2=0.05, p=0.052). [35] The concern, in this study, was that the RCT measured the construct social support using only two items, loneliness and perceived isolation, rather than the full construct scale; thus, potentially negatively impacting the comprehensiveness of the data.…”

“…[35] The study found marginally significant positive peer network intervention outcomes only in alcohol use via reduced social stress (R2=0.05, p=0.052). [35] The concern, in this study, was that the RCT measured the construct social support using only two items, loneliness and perceived isolation, rather than the full construct scale; thus, potentially negatively impacting the comprehensiveness of the data. In contrast to the preceding study, in another RCT involving 253 American participants with major depression and SUDs entering outpatient treatment, Tate, Mrnak-Meyer [27] found diametrically opposed results regarding supportive social networks.…”

“…In some studies, retention was defined as number of substance use during the last 30 days or compliance with a treatment plan. Mason et al [34] assessed retention through self-reported numbers of days a person used substances, such as alcohol, cannabis, during the last month [35]; while in the Ng and Harerimana's study, [36] retention was determined by attendance to scheduled follow-up appointments. Retention was also operationalized as a period representing days on treatment from the first dose to the last dose of methadone or last date of the study period.…”

Consejería Adolescente

“…Los estudios revisados fueron en su mayoría en inglés y abordan los problemas de salud en las distintas áreas temáticas que afectan la salud de los y las adolescentes tales como salud mental (depresión, suicidio, consumo problemático de alcohol y otras sustancias, abuso, violencia, maltrato), salud nutricional (sobrepeso, obesidad y trastornos alimentarios), salud sexual y reproductiva (anticoncepción, prevención de embarazo, ITS, VIH/SIDA), discapacidad, enfermedades crónicas y oncológicas, salud bucal y actividad física [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] .…”