Joint trajectory analysis of treated adolescents' alcohol use and symptoms over 1 year

This study characterized treated adolescents' alcohol use and symptom trajectories over 1 year to describe the form of use trajectories and symptom trajectories, and the joint probability of membership in alcohol use and symptom trajectory groups.

109 teens (age 14-18, 66% male, 94% white), recruited from addictions treatment, with a lifetime DSM-IV alcohol diagnosis, reported on daily alcohol use and symptoms in monthly phone contacts using the Time Line Follow-Back method. A group-based modeling method jointly estimated trajectories of use and symptoms.

Four alcohol use trajectories were identified: "Abstinent" (31%), Low (36%), Increasing (28%), and High Use (5%). Three alcohol symptom trajectories were identified: Very Low severity (44%), Mild (44%), and High severity (12%). The most frequent joint outcome was "Abstinent" and Very Low symptom severity (32%).

Symptom severity was moderately related to alcohol use pattern over 1 year. Findings have implications for moving beyond relapse defined as a return to "any use" to consideration of treatment outcome in terms of a broader pattern of alcohol use and problems.