Principles of Care for Young Adults With Substance Use Disorders

Despite the disproportionate impact of substance use on young adults, as well as their unique developmental circumstances, there has historically been little attention given to the substance use care needs of this population. As a result, there are currently few evidence-based recommendations to guide clinicians in caring for young adults with substance use disorders. The Grayken Center for Addiction Medicine at Boston Medical Center convened an interdisciplinary meeting of experts to establish principles of care to guide the management of young adults with substance use disorders, to help health care organizations establish effective care systems for these patients, and to help guide policy. In this article, we review the care principles and introduce a series of linked articles that go into further details of principles in the domains of evidence-based substance use treatment, family engagement in care, recovery support services, comorbid psychiatric illness, harm reduction, and criminal justice system reform.