Pediatricians who attend two to three training sessions are more likely to use techniques to identify and treat young people with potential alcohol, substance use and mental health problems that those who do not, according to a recent study.
The study — which was conducted at Kaiser Permanente Northern California in Oakland and funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism — spanned a period of two years and involved nearly 50 pediatricians and roughly 1,900 adolescents.
As part of the study, some of the physicians were offered three, 60-minute training sessions in screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment for alcohol, substance use and mental health problems. They were expected to conduct full SBIRT assessments and brief interventions on patients, if necessary.
Another group of physicians was offered one training session and was told to assess patients and refer them as needed to clinical psychologists for interventions. A control group of physicians was given access to clinical guidelines and tools, but was not required to attend training.
Ultimately, the study revealed that the physicians who attended three SBIRT training sessions were roughly 10 times more likely (16 percent versus 1.5 percent) to conduct brief interventions with patients deemed at-risk, compared with the control group. Further, the group that attended one training session and worked with embedded clinical psychologists had an intervention rate of 24.5 percent, according to Constance Weisner, DrPH, the study's principal investigator.
"Overall pediatrician attention to behavioral health concerns was still low," said Dr. Weisner. "Embedding nonphysician clinicians in primary care could be a cost-effective alternative to pediatricians providing these services, and future analyses of the study data will examine patient outcomes and cost-effectiveness of the two SBIRT modalities."
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