Effective therapeutic interventions for Australian adolescents using alcohol and/or other drugs: a scoping review

There are a variety of residential and community service models of therapeutic interventions for people using substances. The focus of much of the currently available research is on adult populations with relatively little known about effective therapeutic interventions for adolescents. The aim of this paper is to identify the most effective therapeutic interventions for Australian adolescents using substances by conducting a systematic scoping literature review.

We followed the PRISMA guidelines to conduct a systematic scoping review that included searches of nine electronic databases (EMBASE, MEDLINE, EBSCO Host, APA PsycNet, SocIndex, Social Science Abstracts, Proquest Central Informit) and grey literature searches of government department and alcohol and other drugs peak body and service provider websites, Google Scholar and the Cochrane library.

A total of 21 studies were identified. These studies included biological, psychological, social and technological therapeutic interventions targeted at different population groups and different substances. The review findings are limited and should considered with caution due to the inability to disaggregate the combinations of interventions provided and the low quality of most of the studies included.

This scoping review highlights the paucity of quality research on effective therapeutic interventions for Australian adolescents using substances. This is primarily due to the available studies not controlling for all of the therapeutic interventions provided. While there is an evidence-base for some of these interventions, others such as encounter groups and journaling require further and more substantive research for use with adolescents. This is necessary to enable informed service design and delivery decision-making and fiscal accountability.