Differential Sensitivity Markers in Youth Drug Abuse Prevention

University Of Minnesota, Minneapolis MN

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Abstract

? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed R34 pilot study will conduct feasibility and exploratory intervention outcome research that will lead to the development of a personalized intervention framework for early stage adolescent drug users. The study will explore putative moderators representing two theoretically distinct frameworks and determine whether they are suitable candidates for a subsequent R01 study. One moderation framework is based on risk severity (RS) as reflected by individual differences in delay discounting (DD), a form of impulsive decision making that is positively associated with escalation to more serious levels of abuse and addiction. A second more exploratory framework is based on differential sensitivity (DS) theory. The DS framework stipulates that individuals, due to specific sensitivity factors, vary in their responsiveness to environmental influence such as the influence provided by an intervention. The study will explore DS markers associated with the reward motivational system, including dopaminergic genes, the post-auricular physiological reflex and a high sensory- processing sensitivity trait. A school-agency-university partnership will collaborate in providing services to 120 adolescents (ages 13-16) who were referred to a community counseling center because of a recent alcohol and/or marijuana incident. Recruitment will select mild/moderate drug users. Participants will be randomized to one of two evidence-based drug abuse interventions. The two interventions offer the same delivery dosage but differ in terms of their mechanism of therapeutic change (i.e., degree of environmental influence). The Teen Intervene program (TI; Winters and Leitten, 2007) is a youth-focused intervention that uses motivational interviewing, goal setting, and skills training to foster the internal development of responsible decision-making with the goal of choosing attitudes and behaviors that are healthier alternatives to drug use behaviors. The Everyday Parenting program (EP; Dishion et al., 2003; 2010) is a family focused-intervention that works with parents to provide environmental scaffolding necessary to help teens gradually internalize decision-making skills that reinforce and promote healthy lifestyle alternatives to drug use. From a risk severity perspective, we anticipate individual differences in DD will account for a moderate amount of variance in intervention response with youth scoring as steep discounters requiring the more comprehensive EP to show treatment gains. We anticipate that individuals with high sensitivity values in one or all DS factors will show positive intervention effects whether randomized to either TI or EP, owing to the assumption that both TI and EP provide sufficient intervention impact for high DS youth. In contrast, youth scoring low in sensitivity factors will require the more environmentally enriched EP to show similar benefits. The aims of this R34 are to (1) assess feasibility of recruiting, assessing, and following-up enrolled youth in an intervention tril, (2) assess the ability of staff to implement TI and EP with fidelity, and (3) obtain promising data on moderator and outcome variables that will help answer the question of what intervention works best for which youth in a subsequent R01 study.