ReviewFrontiers in psychiatry2014
Screening and brief intervention for unhealthy drug use: little or no efficacy.
Review in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 79 citations in OpenAlex.
- Brief Drug Interventions Delivered in General Medical Settings: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Cannabis Use Outcomes.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2025Pooled it
- A Systematic Literature Review of Substance-Use Prevention Programs Amongst Refugee Youth.Community mental health journal · 2024Pooled it
- Efficacy of Brief Intervention for Unhealthy Drug Use in Outpatient Medical Care: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Journal of general internal medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Effects of brief substance use interventions delivered in general medical settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2022Pooled it
- The efficacy of Personalized Normative Feedback interventions across addictions: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2021Pooled it
- Psychosocial interventions to reduce alcohol consumption in concurrent problem alcohol and illicit drug users.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2018Pooled it
- Understanding the characteristics and comorbidities of primary care patients with risky opioid use: Baseline data from the multi-site "Subthreshold Opioid Use Disorder Prevention" (STOP) Trial.Journal of general internal medicine · 2025Trial
- Reducing Khat use among Somalis living in Kenya: a controlled pilot study on the modified ASSIST-linked brief intervention delivered in the community.BMC public health · 2022Trial
- Effect of screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment for unhealthy alcohol and other drug use in mental health treatment settings: a randomized controlled trial.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2021Trial
- Dosage of booster phone calls following an SBIRT intervention in the emergency department for reducing substance use.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2020Trial
- The Effects of a Health Care-Based Brief Intervention on Dating Abuse Perpetration: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2020Trial
- Therapist and computer-based brief interventions for drug use within a randomized controlled trial: effects on parallel trajectories of alcohol use, cannabis use and anxiety symptoms.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2020Trial
- Sexual HIV risk behavior outcomes of brief interventions for drug use in an inner-city emergency department: Secondary outcomes from a randomized controlled trial.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2018Trial
- Comorbid psychopathology and everyday functioning in a brief intervention study to reduce khat use among Somalis living in Kenya: description of baseline multimorbidity, its effects of intervention and its moderation effects on substance use.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2017Trial
- Effectiveness of a computerized motivational intervention on treatment initiation and substance use: Results from a randomized trial.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2017Trial
- A randomized trial of brief assessment interventions for young adults who use drugs in the club scene.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2017Trial
- Reducing non-injection drug use in HIV primary care: A randomized trial of brief motivational interviewing, with and without HealthCall, a technology-based enhancement.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2017Trial
- Examining multi-session brief intervention for substance use in primary care: research methods of a randomized controlled trial.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2016Trial
- Readiness to change is a predictor of reduced substance use involvement: findings from a randomized controlled trial of patients attending South African emergency departments.BMC psychiatry · 2016Trial
- Project QUIT (Quit Using Drugs Intervention Trial): a randomized controlled trial of a primary care-based multi-component brief intervention to reduce risky drug use.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2015Trial
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Unhealthy drug use ranges from use that risks health harms through severe drug use disorders. This narrative review addresses whether screening and brief intervention (SBI), efficacious for risky alcohol use, has efficacy for reducing other drug use and consequences. Brief intervention among those seeking help shows some promise. Screening tools have been validated though most are neither brief nor simple enough for use in general health settings. Several randomized trials have tested the efficacy of brief intervention for unhealthy drug use identified by screening in general health settings (i.e., in people not seeking help for their drug use). Substantial evidence now suggests that efficacy is limited or non-existent. Reasons likely include a range of actual and perceived severity (or lack of severity), concomitant unhealthy alcohol use and comorbid mental health conditions, and the wide range of types of unhealthy drug use (e.g., from marijuana, to prescription drugs, to heroin). Although brief intervention may have some efficacy for unhealthy drug users seeking help, the model of SBI that has effects in primary care settings on risky alcohol use may not be efficacious for other drug use.
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Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.