{"id":19053,"date":"2025-04-27T17:13:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-27T16:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=19053"},"modified":"2025-08-10T16:52:53","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T15:52:53","slug":"prevention-program-has-reduced-odds-of-teen-drug-use-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2025\/04\/prevention-program-has-reduced-odds-of-teen-drug-use-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Prevention program has reduced odds of teen drug use: Study"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_post_title et_pb_post_title_0_tb_body et_pb_bg_layout_light et_pb_text_align_left\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_title_container\">\n<h1 class=\"entry-title\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">by\u00a0<strong>Drug and Alcohol Testing Association of Canada<span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"> &#8211; <\/span><\/strong><\/span><span class=\"published\" style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Mar 25, 2025<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_title_featured_container\">According to the results of a new study, a Montreal-based drug prevention program for teenagers significantly reduced the risk of substance use disorders. The program, called PreVenture, provided adolescents with tools and strategies to cope with personality traits such as impulsivity and anxiety. In turn, the research study evaluated the impact of PreVenture in 31 high schools in the Montreal area over a five-year timeframe and was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_post_content et_pb_post_content_0_tb_body\">\n<p>\u201cIf a young person is reporting very high levels of these traits, they\u2019re more likely to use substances as a way to manage those traits,\u201d said Dr. Patricia Conrod, founder of the PreVenture program, a psychiatry professor at the Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al and scientist at Sainte-Justine hospital in Montreal, in her\u00a0interview\u00a0with CBC News.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, the study showed that the program helped reduce the increase in the odds of substance use disorder by 35% year over year when compared to a control group. PreVenture helps teenagers manage traits that are linked to substance abuse, which include impulsivity, sensation seeking, anxiety sensitivity, and hopelessness. It includes two 90-minute workshops provided to Grade 7 students, helping them understand their personalities and teaching them tools to manage them. Moreover, PreVenture uses cognitive behavioural therapy, interactive exercises, and group discussions to find personality-specific coping strategies.<\/p>\n<p>The program is currently offered in schools in five Canadian provinces, including Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia, as well as in several U.S. states. \u201cSome substance use disorders are preventable, and we should be making sure that young people have access to the programs and the resources they need,\u201d said Dr. Conrod. However, she noted that despite the evidence of its effectiveness, Canadian schools need sustained funding from federal and provincial sources in order to be able to make the program more accessible.<\/p>\n<p>According to Christine Schwartz, professor at the Children\u2019s Health Policy Centre at Vancouver\u2019s Simon Fraser University, policy-makers often prioritize treatment over prevention when it comes to substance use. \u201cIt\u2019s a little bit harder for policy-makers to put the money towards prevention knowing they may not see the benefits \u2014 and there will be benefits in many of these cases, but they\u2019re not going to see them for several years,\u201d she said in her interview with CBC News. \u201cThere\u2019s been a long history of using programs that haven\u2019t necessarily been effective\u2026 What\u2019s happening now is that policy-makers are increasingly turning to the research evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Source: https:\/\/datac.ca\/prevention-program-has-reduced-odds-of-teen-drug-use-study\/<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by\u00a0Drug and Alcohol Testing Association of Canada &#8211; Mar 25, 2025 According to the results of a new study, a Montreal-based drug prevention program for teenagers significantly reduced the risk of substance use disorders. The program, called PreVenture, provided adolescents with tools and strategies to cope with personality traits such as impulsivity and anxiety. In [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,16,40,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alcohol","category-canada","category-prevention-research","category-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19053\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}