NCJ Number
198572
Journal
Addiction Volume: 97 Issue: Supplement 1 Dated: December 2002 Pages: 16-34
Date Published
December 2002
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This article describes the goals, rationale, study design, analysis plans, and findings for the Cannabis Youth Treatment Experiment conducted with 600 adolescents.
Abstract
Focusing on the Cannabis Youth Treatment (CYT) Experiment, this article details the goals, rationale, study design, analysis plans, and findings of this community-based substance abuse treatment program for adolescents. After describing the use of cannabis as a growing problem with increasingly negative effects, the authors note that between 1992 and 1998 the number of adolescents with cannabis related problems increased by 134 percent in the United States. Arguing that previous evaluations of adolescents cannabis treatment programs were limited by small sample size, the authors present an overview of the origin, goals, and design of the CYT experiment. Designed to test the relative effectiveness and cost and benefit of 5 promising treatment interventions, the CYT experiment recruited 600 adolescents, aged 12- to 18-years-old, who had used marijuana in the past 90 days and assigned them to 1 of 5 intervention programs. Located in two community based treatment programs and two major medical centers in Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, the Motivational Enhancement Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Family Support Network, Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach, and the Multidimensional Family Therapy approaches were attended by and tested by CYT program participants. Results from interviews, self-reports, collateral reports, and urine analyses conducted with CYT program participants at 3, 6, 9, and 12-month intervals following participation in the various programs indicate that the CYT manual-guided therapy and quality assurance model was financially feasible, effective, and capable of being out into large-scale practice. Table, figures, references