Adolescence, Alcoholism and Interventions
Substance abuse entails a whole host of social, physical and mental health problems. A recent overview published in the Journal of Adolescent Health evaluates the effectiveness of interventions focused on smoking, alcohol or combined drug use prevention amongst teenagers. The study found school-based programmes and family-based intensive interventions to be particularly effective for reducing tobacco use. A similar conclusion was reached regarding alcohol consumption. For other drug, or combined drug usage, school-based programmes were singled out as the most useful interventions for combating addiction. Other notable findings involve the effectiveness of Internet-based interventions. The review notes that results seem to be mixed and that, while such programmes have enormous potential, future research in this area is needed.