Clinical trial NCT01266109: Enhancing Juvenile Drug Court Outcomes With Evidence-Based Practices
Official title: Enhancing Juvenile Drug Court Outcomes With Evidence-Based Practices
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: PHASE2
Conditions: Adolescent Substance Use
Keywords: Substance Use
Delinquency
Juvenile Drug Court
Contingency Management
Family Engagement
Lead sponsor: Medical University of South Carolina
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
First posted: 2010-12-24
Enrollment: 172
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 12
Maximum age (years): 17
Standard ages: CHILD
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: Juvenile drug courts were developed in response to a perceived need to intervene more effectively with youth with substance abuse problems. Close collaboration between the court and substance abuse treatment provider is a defining component of the drug court model and is critical to helping youth achieve positive outcomes. Despite the proliferation of juvenile drug courts in recent years, however, evaluation of their capacity to reduce offender substance use and criminal activity has lagged. Moreover, the Institute of Medicine (IOM, 1998) and leading experts (McLellan, Carise, \& Kleber, 2003) have presented a bleak picture of the nation's capacity to meet the treatment needs of substance abusing individuals. Although community-based programs provide the backbone of substance abuse treatment in the nation, their capabilities have not kept up with major scientific advances in the development and validation of evidence-based substance abuse interventions.

Building on our research findings and experience regarding juvenile drug court outcomes as well as the transport of evidence-based practices to community treatment settings, the purpose of this study is to develop and test a relatively flexible and low cost strategy for enhancing the outcomes of juvenile drug courts by integrating components of evidence-based treatments into existing substance abuse services.

Specifically, this project aims to:

Aim 1: Adapt existing intervention and training protocols from evidence-based practices (i.e., Contingency Management for adolescent substance abuse; family engagement strategies from evidence-based treatments of juvenile offenders) for integration into juvenile drug court sites.

Aim 2: Conduct a study to examine youth (e.g., substance use and criminal behavior) and system level (e.g., intervention adherence, feasibility, retention and completion rates, consumer satisfaction, cost estimates) effects of implementing the intervention protocols in juvenile drug courts.

Aim 3: Revise the intervention and training protocols in preparation for a Stage II study if findings are supportive.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Juvenile Drug Court-involved youth
* Fluency in English

Exclusion Criteria:

* None

Primary outcomes:
measure: Substance Use
timeFrame: Quarterly for up to 1 year post-baseline
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Delinquency
timeFrame: Quarterly for up to 1 year post-baseline
measure: Intervention Fidelity
timeFrame: Monthly for up to 1 year post-baseline
measure: Cost Estimates
timeFrame: Annually for 4 years
measure: Consumer Satisfaction
timeFrame: Bi-annually for 4 years
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Charleston
country: United States
facility: Medical University of South Carolina
state: South Carolina
Study officials:
affiliation: Medical University of South Carolina
name: Scott W Henggeler, Ph.D.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Tuerk EH, McCart MR, Henggeler SW. Collaboration in family therapy. J Clin Psychol. 2012 Feb;68(2):168-78. doi: 10.1002/jclp.21833.
citation: Henggeler SW, McCart MR, Cunningham PB, Chapman JE. Enhancing the effectiveness of juvenile drug courts by integrating evidence-based practices. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2012 Apr;80(2):264-75. doi: 10.1037/a0027147. Epub 2012 Feb 6.
citation: McCart MR, Henggeler SW, Chapman JE, Cunningham PB. System-level effects of integrating a promising treatment into juvenile drug courts. J Subst Abuse Treat. 2012 Sep;43(2):231-43. doi: 10.1016/j.jsat.2011.10.030. Epub 2011 Dec 5.