A High School Program for Preventing Prescription Drug Abuse

ABSTRACT A High School Program for Preventing Prescription Drug Abuse This Fast Track SBIR proposal is designed to address the critical need for an effective primary prevention approach for prescription drug abuse PDA an urgent public health crisis in the United States Deaths from prescription drug overdoses have more than tripled in the past years and the abuse of prescription opioids has fueled a dramatic rise in heroin abuse with of new heroin users reporting a history of misuse of prescription opioids The peak ages for PDA in the U S are to Thus effectively preventing PDA in adolescents is central to reducing further increases in morbidity and mortality Research demonstrates that alcohol marijuana and other forms of substance abuse typically co occur with PDA and share similar risk and protective factors School based prevention provides access to large numbers of youth but new program implementation modalities are needed because there is less time available for classroom based prevention than in years past Thus there is a need for prevention programs that address the risk and protective factors unique to PDA are broad based in nature so that they address the risk and protective factors common to substance abuse and related problem behaviors incorporate best practices in effective substance abuse prevention and take advantage of new technologies to enhance classroom based sessions In the proposed project we will develop and test an adaptation of the evidence based substance abuse prevention approach called Life Skills Training LST The LST program has been extensively tested and found to effectively prevent substance abuse violence and aggression in a series of randomized controlled trials with behavioral effects reported in over peer reviewed publications The proposed preventive intervention for high school PDA will utilize both online e learning modules and interactive classroom sessions to address PDA and concurrent alcohol drug abuse positively change social norms surrounding PDA and alcohol drug abuse challenge positive expectancies about the benefits of PDA discourage diversion of prescription medication enhance protective factors by building social self regulation and relationship skills through interactive learning and behavioral rehearsal scenarios and include online booster sessions In Phase I we will focus group test prototype materials with high school students teachers and administrators to demonstrate feasibility relevance usefulness and appeal Materials will be revised based on focus group feedback In Phase II we will fully develop the program materials and conduct a rigorous national randomized trial of the prevention program High schools N will be randomized into either an intervention group that receives the intervention or a treatment as usual control group that receives existing school health education programming At the end of the initial intervention period and at one and two year follow ups we will compare both groups with respect to changes in behaviors norms attitudes and knowledge regarding PDA and other forms of substance abuse This research offers the potential to identify an innovative and engaging prevention program capable of reducing PDA and other drug abuse NARRATIVE A High School Program for Preventing Prescription Drug Abuse This SBIR FAST TRACK proposal is designed to address the critical need to reduce prescription drug abuse PDA among high school aged youth The project will develop and test for effectiveness a universal prevention approach for PDA that uses a combination of online e learning modules and interactive classroom sessions This research offers the potential to identify an innovative effective interactive and engaging preventive intervention capable of reducing PDA and alcohol tobacco and other drug ATOD use that can be widely disseminated throughout the country and ultimately decrease the adverse consequences of PDA and other related forms of substance abuse