Substance Use Interventions for College Kids

Many colleges and universities have seen increased referrals of students to administration for violation of alcohol policies. Many of these students are binge drinkers; in fact, according to a study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health, nearly 50 percent of all college students surveyed admitted that they participated in binge drinking during the previous two weeks.

Binge drinking is defined as consuming four or more drinks in one sitting for girls and five or more drinks in a row for boys. Frequent binge drinking is associated with falling grades, injury, sexual assault, property damage, and even death.

While some binge drinkers won't need intensive substance abuse therapy, some form of intervention is necessary to prevent reoccurrence and subsequent alcohol-related problems. But while students who break university rules are often sent for counseling or educational programs, research is needed to help determine which types of follow-up interventions are most successful.

One recent study performed at Rutgers University in New Jersey, suggests that face-to-face follow-up assessments done both 4 months and 15 months after a brief motivational alcohol intervention helped students to decrease their alcohol consumption and avoid further alcohol-related problems long term, compared with written feedback assessments following alcohol intervention.

The reason? Further research is needed to support this study and determine the reasons why in-person assessment works so well, but it may be that students feel more accountable to someone else when they are interviewed face to face.