Experts believe adolescent alcohol addiction should be treated differently than in adults
by Barbara Morse, NBC 10 NEWS
March 11, 2021
(WJAR) — Treating excessive alcohol use in adolescents should be different than in adults, says a local researcher.
“A lot of models that we have for adolescent addiction are really based on adult models,” said Dr. Sarah Feldstein Ewing, a clinical psychology professor at URI. But it’s her research out of Oregon Health and Science University that is making news–showing treatments for adolescents should be very different than in the adult population.
Here’s why:
“The same parts of your brain that tell you that you have to use the sort of resist behavior, that’s the last part of the brain to come online and so it doesn’t make sense to try to get kids to use parts of their brain that aren’t even there yet and won’t be there until after they’re done with college,” said Feldstein Ewing.
This research involved about 200 underage drinkers–the adolescents reached through social media. All engaged in talk therapy. Part of this research included placing them in an MRI scanner before and after receiving one of two behavioral treatments.
“We actually looked at the movement of blood in the brain, we actually have tasks that we use. We played back therapist language, the therapists who did the behavior therapy with them. We play back their words so the kids heard their words and saw the language of what the therapist said while they’re in the scanner so we’re really trying to find out what works in traditional talk therapy,” said Feldstein Ewing. “And we’ve seen results. We’re very excited about it.”
“The way that we measured if their brains are changing is that way and then behaviorally, we measured their drinking report of how much they’re drinking before the treatment and reports at 3, 6 and 12 months after treatment,” said Feldstein Ewing.
This study was funded by a 1.8 million dollar grant from the NIH.
Feldstein Ewing says she’s planning another similar study at URI in the coming months.