Adventure: Teacher Delivered Personality-targeted Interventions for Substance Misuse
Condition: Alcohol Abuse; Drug Abuse; Depression; Panic Disorder; Conduct Disorder
MeSH terms: Alcoholism; Substance-Related Disorders; Panic Disorder; Conduct Disorder
Study type: Interventional
Phase: Phase 2/Phase 3

Summary: 
      Several personality factors have been shown to be associated with risk for alcohol and
      substance misuse, and differentiate substance abusers based on clinical profile, treatment
      response and susceptibility to other forms of mental illness. Personality-targeted
      interventions have been found to have significant preventative effects on onset and growth of
      drinking, binge-drinking and drinking problems in adolescents attending mainstream schools
      (Conrod, Castellanos & Mackie, 2008). The interventions concurrently reduced
      personality-specific emotional and behavioural problems (Castellanos & Conrod, 2006), and
      prevented the onset and escalation of drug-use over a two-year period (Conrod,
      Castellanos-Ryan & Strang, 2010). This cluster randomised controlled trial aims to examine
      whether these results can be replicated when interventions are delivered by trained
      educational professionals. In addition, the trial will evaluate the broader impact of the
      programme on cigarette smoking, school attendance, academic achievement and school-wide
      behaviours.
    

Detailed description: 
      The Adventure study aims to examine whether educational professionals such as teachers,
      mentors or individuals in a pastoral role, who are trained in carrying out
      personality-targeted interventions will be effective in reducing problem behaviours in a
      group of adolescents.

      20 schools in London, U.K. were recruited for the trial, and over 2000 adolescents (mean age
      13.7 years) consented to participate in the survey and intervention phases of the trial.
      Schools were randomly assigned to control or intervention condition, and students in
      intervention schools who met the criteria for any of the 4 personality risk subscales of the
      Substance Use Risk Profile Scale (Negative Thinking, Anxiety Sensitivity, Sensation Seeking
      and Impulsivity) were invited to participate in a personality-targeted intervention by
      trained members of staff from their schools. All participants were invited to complete
      follow-up surveys at 6-month intervals for 2 years. The remaining 55% of low risk students in
      the grad were also followed to examine population-level effects of the intervention as well.

      The main outcome measures of this RCT are alcohol and illicit drug outcomes. Secondary
      measures include mental health symptoms, risky behaviour, school attainment and attendance,
      and school-wide behaviours.

      It is hypothesised that teacher-delivered personality-targeted interventions will have
      similar preventative effects on alcohol and drug use as reported by Conrod et al (2008,
      2010), in addition to the personality-specific intervention effects reported by Castellanos &
      Conrod (2006). In addition, broader effects of the intervention on academic achievement and
      school-wide behaviour will be examined in this trial, both at the individual level and at the
      population-level.
    

Intervention name(s): Personality-targeted interventions
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Motivational and cognitive behavioural interventions targeting four personality profiles. 2 90 minute group sessions with personality-matched peers facilitated by a trained teacher and co-facilitator
Other intervention name(s): Preventure, but now delivered by teachers
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Factorial Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention