Doyle, Stephanie

Harris, Sion K

Knight, John R

Sherritt, Lon

Van Hook, Shari

Addiction Science & Clinical Practice

Harvard University - DASH 

 “This is your brain on drugs”: adolescent substance useprevention through neuroscience education  (Article begins on next page)The Harvard community has made this article openly available.Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters.Citation Harris, Sion K, Stephanie Doyle, Lon Sherritt, Shari Van Hook,and John R Knight. 2013. ““This is your brain on drugs”:adolescent substance use prevention through neuroscienceeducation.” Addiction Science & Clinical Practice 8 (Suppl 1):A32. doi:10.1186/1940-0640-8-S1-A32.http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1940-0640-8-S1-A32.Published Version doi:10.1186/1940-0640-8-S1-A32Accessed February 19, 2015 2:32:01 PM ESTCitable Link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:11877053Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University's DASHrepository, and is made available under the terms and conditionsapplicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth athttp://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of-use#LAAMEETING ABSTRACT Open Access“This is your brain on drugs”: adolescentsubstance use prevention throughneuroscience educationSion K Harris1,2*, Stephanie Doyle3, Lon Sherritt1,2, Shari Van Hook1,2, John R Knight1,2From International Network on Brief Interventions for Alcohol and Other Drugs (INEBRIA) Meeting 2013Rome, Italy. 18-20 September 2013Interest in the brain has risen dramatically in recent dec-ades, suggesting that neuroscience-based informationabout substance use risks could be a compelling additionto prevention efforts. However, no studies have tested thisapproach among adolescents. In this study, we tested theeffects of a high school science curriculum called “TheBrain: Understanding Neurobiology through the Study ofAddiction” developed by the U.S. National Institutes ofHealth (NIH) to teach students about how alcohol anddrugs affect the brain. We examined the curriculum’seffects on students’ knowledge, attitudes, and use oftobacco, alcohol, and drugs. Participants were 9th-11th gra-ders attending 2 urban high schools whose parents con-sented (222/282=79%). We standardized the 5-lessoncurriculum and trained 5 science teachers; 8 classes(n=133) received the NIH curriculum, 5 matched-gradecomparison classes (n=89) received the usual curriculum.We used a self-administered survey to assess demo-graphics, knowledge, perceived risk of harm from sub-stance use, substance use, peer/family substance use, andprior health education. We collected data 1-2 weeks pre-intervention (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2;1 month after T1), and 6-8 months later (T3). We usedmultiple logistic regression with generalized estimatingequations for post-test comparisons, adjusting for T1differences and within-class correlation. 180/222 (81%)students completed all measurements; group completionrates were similar (control=80%, intervention=82%).Compared to control students, intervention students hadlower past-30-day cigarette use at T2 (7% vs. 21%,AOR=0.20, 95% CI 0.08-0.49, p=.01), and a marginal trendtoward lower alcohol initiation between T1 and T2(3% vs. 20%; adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=0.09 95% CI 0.01-1.03, p=.052). Among low-frequency marijuana users (1-5times lifetime at baseline), fewer intervention students hadpast-30-day marijuana use at T2 (5% vs. 35%, AOR=0.01,95%CI 0.00-0.30, p=0.03). All between-groups differenceswere extinguished by T3. Neuroscience education is a pro-mising supplemental strategy for adolescent substance useprevention; however, ongoing reinforcement is needed.Authors’ details1Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA. 2Harvard Medical School,Boston, MA, USA. 3Boston Public Health Commission, Boston, MA, USA.Published: 4 September 2013doi:10.1186/1940-0640-8-S1-A32Cite this article as: Harris et al.: “This is your brain on drugs”: adolescentsubstance use prevention through neuroscience education. AddictionScience & Clinical Practice 2013 8(Suppl 1):A32.Submit your next manuscript to BioMed Centraland take full advantage of: • Convenient online submission• Thorough peer review• No space constraints or color figure charges• Immediate publication on acceptance• Inclusion in PubMed, CAS, Scopus and Google Scholar• Research which is freely available for redistributionSubmit your manuscript at www.biomedcentral.com/submit* Correspondence: sion.harris@childrens.harvard.edu1Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USAFull list of author information is available at the end of the articleHarris et al. Addiction Science & Clinical Practice 2013, 8(Suppl 1):A32http://www.ascpjournal.org/content/8/S1/A32© 2013 Harris et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative CommonsAttribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction inany medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

“This is your brain on drugs”: adolescent substance use prevention through neuroscience education

https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/11877053/3766080.pdf?sequence=1

“This is your brain on drugs”: adolescent substance use prevention through neuroscience education

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Harvard University - DASH