Digital Interventions to Facilitate Screening, Brief Interventions, and Referral to Treatment for Substance Use Among...

Substance use in adolescence is linked to short-term and long-term morbidity and mortality, including risk of developing a substance use disorder, violence, poor academic and career achievement, impaired social functioning and relationships, homicides and suicides, and drug overdose deaths and poisonings. Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) is a public health framework for addressing adolescent substance use, but challenges to implementation exist. Digital approaches can mitigate existing barriers to SBIRT. We provide an overview of the digital interventions used for SBIRT, discuss challenges with current digital approaches, and provide recommendations to enhance the digital SBIRT in routine practice.