Brief intervention ineffective to decrease unhealthy drug use

Reference

Sahker E, Luo Y, Sakata M, et al. Efficacy of brief intervention for unhealthy drug use in outpatient medical care: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Gen Intern Med 2022;37(8):2041-2049.

Synopsis

These researchers used 4 databases, a trial registry, and reference lists of relevant research to identify 20 randomized controlled trials enrolling 9182 participants who screened positive for unhealthy drug use (cannabis, opioids, or mixed drug use; unhealthy alcohol use was not studied). The participants in the included studies received usual care (such as pamphlets on healthy drug use), minimal advice, or 1 to 5 intervention sessions lasting 5 to 60 minutes either in-person, by phone, mailed, or web-based. The researchers followed PRISMA guidelines for conducting and reporting their methods. The risk of bias varied by outcome but was deemed not serious for the major outcomes. Overall, brief interventions across outpatient settings do not affect the frequency of drug use (high certainty) or the severity of drug use (low certainty). There was a small effect (standardized mean difference = −0.15; 95% CI −0.25 to −0.04; P < .01) with brief intervention originating in an emergency department setting.