Integrating Mindfulness-Based Skills Training Into Brief Outpatient Treatment for Substance Abusing Youth

The proposed study will evaluate the clinical effectiveness of integrating mindfulness-based skills training into a standardized brief group intervention for youth (ages 16 to 24) identified as having problematic substance use. Forty youth (N = 20 per group) will be randomized to one of two treatment conditions: 1) a standardized 4-week brief treatment for problematic substance use (treatment as usual; TAU) or 2) standardized brief treatment (TAU) augmented with a mindfulness skills training component based primarily on the mindfulness module described in Linehan\'s (1993b) Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills group training. It is expected that, compared to the TAU, the mindfulness-based group plus TAU will produce superior outcomes on the following primary outcome measures: number of substance use days, confidence to resist urges to use substances, and mindfulness skills. Secondary outcomes that will be examined include severity of consequences of use, general psychiatric symptoms, self-compassion, emotion dysregulation, and transfer to further treatment.