Hazel Brogdon, MD
Chief Fellow, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship Spokane PGY5
Sacred Heart Medical Center
Adolescence is a high-risk period for substance use initiation and substance use-related adverse outcomes. Many adolescents will engage in some form of substance use before they graduate from high school.1 Preventing or delaying substance use initiation among youth is protective from developing substance use disorders (SUDs) and other adverse health outcomes.2 Adolescents with substance misuse are at elevated risk for lower academic performance, teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, experiencing violence, and other mental health disorders. Teachers, school counselors, community partners, and primary care clinics have an opportunity to help screen, prevent, educate, and counsel youth on substance use disorders and learn ways to change language to destigmatize substance use disorders.3,4
Resources
The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) has several free resources that can be quickly and easily be incorporated in a variety of settings.
Here is a video of Dr. Geetha Subramaniam sharing information on validated screening Adolescent Substance use screening tools in a primary care settings.
Link for Brief Screener for Tobacco, Alcohol, and other Drugs: https://nida.nih.gov/bstad/
Link for Screening to Brief Intervention (S2BI): https://nida.nih.gov/s2bi/
CRAFFT is another validated screening tool that is designed to identify substance use, substance related riding/driving risk, and substance use disorder amongst youth ages 12-21.
Video of Teen Brain Development by NIDA using computer programming analogy
Resource for parents: conversation starters: https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/parents-educators/conversation-starters
Lesson Plans and Activities: https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/parents-educators/lesson-plans
Interactive educational tool to learn impact of vaping: https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/parents-educators/lesson-plans/how-nicotine-affects-teen-brain/vapingrisksinteractive/