Abstinence outcomes among women in reproductive health centers administered clinician or electronic brief...

Treatment of substance use in women seeking reproductive healthcare is crucial for the health of both women and their offspring. Although abstinence from all substance use during pregnancy is optimal, it is difficult to achieve. This secondary analysis reports abstinence outcomes from a randomized clinical trial of screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) for substance use among women seeking reproductive healthcare services. Women who screened positive for substance use were randomly assigned to either clinician-administered SBIRT, an electronically-administered brief intervention (e-SBIRT), or an enhanced usual care condition. At a 6-month follow-up assessment, compared to enhanced usual care, the clinician-administered SBIRT increased 1-month point prevalence of abstinence from the primary substance by 7.7%, and e-SBIRT increased abstinence by 12.8%. Both brief interventions were more useful than enhanced usual care and could increase substance use abstinence rates among women in reproductive healthcare clinics. The electronic brief intervention is particularly attractive given that it appears as efficacious as, but requires fewer resources than, clinician-delivered brief interventions.