Project Overview
Adolescent substance abuse results in significant negative outcomes for youths, their families, communities, and society. Rates of psychiatric comorbidity, or dual diagnosis, among substance-abusing youths range from 25 to 82 percent. Treatment of these youths is both costly and complicated, with youth and their families often having to navigate separate treatment services for each disorder. As well, treatment of youths with co-occurring disorders is often ineffective, with youth returning to pre-treatment levels of substance use often and more rapidly than youths without a psychiatric disorder. This study (NIDA #R01DA025616) was a randomized clinical trial that compared an experimental treatment (OutPatient Treatment for Adolescents) to an “active placebo” on key indices (drug use; mental health; behavioral, school, peer, and family functioning; and consumer satisfaction) from pre-treatment through 18 months in order to evaluate its efficacy for youth referred to outpatient treatment of co-occurring substance use and internalizing problems.
Year Project Began: 2014Funder: National Institute on Drug Abuse
Principal Investigator
Ashli J. Sheidow, Ph.D.
Oregon Social Learning Center
Active Research Projects
- Probation Officers – Contingency Management – Emerging Adults (PO-CM-EA)
- Leveraging Evidence to Activate Parents (LEAP)
- The JEAP Initiative – Justice-Involved and Emerging Adults Populations Initiative
- CM+
- Multisystemic Therapy for Emerging Adults MST-EA (NIDA)
- Juvenile Probation Officers-Contingency Management (JPO-CM)
- Multisystemic Therapy for Emerging Adults MST-EA (NIMH)
- SAF – Randomized Trial of Supervisor Audit-and-Feedback Intervention
- RRFT: Integrative Risk Reduction and Treatment for Teen Substance Use Problems and PTSD
- MAP-OPT A: Research on Outpatient Treatment for Adolescents with Comorbidity
Primary Research and Clinical Interests
Dr. Sheidow researches treatments for mental health and substance abuse problems in adolescents and emerging adults, particularly those who have co-occurring problems. She’s also focused on effective dissemination of evidence-based practices, in particular training practices for community-based counselors.
Dr. Sheidow’s research interests have focused broadly on the development, prevention, and treatment of adolescent and young adult psychopathology and delinquency from an ecological perspective, with concentrations in co-occurring disorders, effective dissemination of evidence-based practices, and advanced quantitative methods. Her work, funded primarily by NIDA and NIMH, has included intervention development and evaluation projects, as well as dissemination and implementation research. She is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse and the Journal of Behavioral Health Services Research, and has led programming for national conferences on adolescent substance abuse research.