Outpatient Alcohol and Drug Treatment for Adolescents with Co-Occurring Conduct Disorder

Abstract

Conduct disorder (CD) commonly co-occurs among adolescents with substance use disorder (SUD) and complicates the clinical course of SUD. Although research has begun to investigate CD's impact on adolescent response to SUD treatment, comparatively little is known about the effects of outpatient SUD treatment on this population. This study examined how co-occurring CD influences SUD treatment response as well as longer-term outcomes. Adolescent outpatients (N = 126; M age = 16.7, 25% female) with (i.e., SUD-CD; n = 52), and without CD (SUD-only; n = 74), were compared at baseline. Multilevel mixed models tested group effects on percent days abstinent (PDA) and other clinical and continuing care variables during and following treatment at 6 and 12 months. At baseline, SUD-CD participants had significantly greater psychiatric symptoms, substance use consequences, problem severity, and comorbid internalizing disorders. Both groups changed similarly on measured variables during treatment; however, the sample overall showed increases in PDA and drops in psychiatric symptoms. Following treatment, there were no differences in PDA between groups (p = .44). Both groups showed lower rates of psychiatric symptoms and arrests in the year following treatment, though SUD-CD still reported more psychiatric symptoms (p = .01) and higher inpatient (p = .02) and outpatient treatment (p = .04) utilization than SUD-only. SUD-CD patients may require a more psychiatrically integrated treatment approach during outpatient SUD treatment and more assertive and aggressive continuing care to reduce psychiatric distress, decrease the risk of further hospitalizations, and increase quality of life.