title: Emerging Pharmacologic Treatments for Adolescent Substance Use: Challenges and New Directions.
abstract: Adolescence is a key period in the development of substance use and misuse. Substance use typically begins during adolescence and prevalence rates for many substance use disorders peak before age 21 years. Yet, despite clinical demand, treatments for youth rely almost entirely on psychosocial interventions that yield only modest benefit. One potential way to improve treatment effects is to augment the best available psychosocial interventions with pharmacotherapy. Although pharmacotherapy research has advanced care for adults with substance use disorders, no medication is indicated for adolescents and controlled trials with teenagers are scant. Optimizing treatments for youth will require closing this important gap in medication development research. In this paper we review the paucity of pharmacotherapy research for adolescent substance misuse, and we discuss how we can leverage human laboratory paradigms and technology to advance our understanding regarding if and how medications may improve treatment options for youths.
authors: Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Brown University.
authors: Robert
authors: R
authors: Miranda
authors: Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Brown University.
authors: Hayley
authors: H
authors: Treloar
keywords: Adolescents; Ecological Momentary Assessment; Human Laboratory; Medication; Pharmacotherapy; Review; Substance Use