Matching treatment to develoment: emerging adults and substance-use disorder

Dalton, Kathryn (2019) Matching treatment to develoment: emerging adults and substance-use disorder. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

Emerging adults (age 18-25) drop out of substance use disorder (SUD) treatment earlier than those age 26+. Retention in treatment is important as it is correlated to long-term sobriety. There is a gap in the literature on how to improve retention in emerging adults. Through a systematic review and qualitative study, this thesis explored the best options to improve treatment retention in emerging adults with SUD. The systematic review summarized the literature and identified the highest treatment retention is reported to occur with contingency management, cognitive behavioral therapy, and opioid replacement therapy. In the qualitative study, health care professionals (HCPs) were interviewed regarding facilitators and barriers of treatment retention. Four themes were identified: 1) the emerging adults’ development, 2) their addiction and recovery, 3) the environment, and 4) SUD programing. Future recommendations include tailoring SUD programming to the developmental needs of emerging adults and involving HCPs in the design of SUD programming.

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