Lessons learned and future directions: A scoping review of American Indian and Alaska Native participants in the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network.

Introduction: American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations are disproportionately affected by substance use disorders (SUDs) and related health disparities in contrast to other ethnoracial groups in the United States. Over the past 20 years, substantial resources have been allocated to the National Institute on Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network (CTN) to disseminate and implement effective SUD treatments in communities. However, we know little about how these resources have benefitted AI/AN peoples with SUD who arguably experience the greatest burden of SUDs.

One size does not fit all: A NIDA CTN inspired model for community engaged cultural adaptation.

The NIDA National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (NIDA CTN) is devoted to the development of effective interventions for people who use substances across a variety of populations. When positive outcomes of a particular intervention do not generalize to other groups, adaptation may improve effectiveness for a different target group. However, currently limited information is available for involving community participation in cultural adaptation.

A systematic scoping review of research on Black participants in the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network.

Black individuals experience a disproportionate burden of substance-related disabilities and premature death relative to other racial/ethnic groups, highlighting the need for additional research. The National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN), a research platform for multisite behavioral, pharmacological, and integrated trials designed to evaluate the effectiveness of substance use treatments in community settings with diversified patient populations, provides a wealth of research knowledge on substance use. Although CTN trials have enrolled over 5,000 Black individuals since its inception in 2000, there has been no synthesis of the findings, discussion of the implications, or suggestions for future research for Black individuals.

Does treatment readiness enhance the response of African American substance users to Motivational Enhancement Therapy?

The development of effective treatments for African Americans and other ethnic minorities is essential for reducing health disparities in substance use. Despite research suggesting that Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET) may reduce substance use among African Americans, the findings have been inconsistent. This research examined the extent to which readiness-to-change (RTC) affects response to MET among African American substance users.

Motivational enhancement therapy for African American substance users: a randomized clinical trial.

Limited empirical evidence concerning the efficacy of substance abuse treatments among African Americans reduces opportunities to evaluate and improve program efficacy. The current study, conducted as a secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial conducted by the Clinical Trials Network of the National Institute of Drug Abuse, addressed this knowledge gap by examining the efficacy of motivational enhancement therapy (MET) compared with counseling as usual (CAU) among 194 African American adults seeking outpatient substance abuse treatment at 5 participating sites. The findings revealed higher retention rates among women in MET than in CAU during the initial 12 weeks of the 16-week study.

Measurement and data analysis in research addressing health disparities in substance abuse.

This article describes concrete strategies for conducting substance abuse research with ethnic minorities. Two issues associated with valid analysis, measurement and data analysis, are included. Both empirical (e.

Age differences in knowledge about HIV transmission among African-American men and women.

To test whether knowledge about HIV transmission may be one contributing factor to the disproportionately high rates of HIV and AIDS cases among older African Americans, this study examined data from 448 African-American men and women, who completed the AIDS Knowledge and Awareness Scale. Overall the findings supported the hypothesis that older African Americans were not as knowledgeable as their younger counterparts. However, the analyses also indicated older (age 61+) African-American women were significantly less knowledgeable about HIV transmission than the younger women.

Drug abuse in African American and Hispanic adolescents: culture, development, and behavior.

An understanding of African American and Hispanic adolescent drug abuse occurs at the intersection of context, development, and behavior. The focus of this review is on the impact of racial/ethnic culture as one of the important contexts that influence adolescent development toward or away from prosocial behaviors. Because family plays a major role in both African American and Hispanic cultures, it is also a centerpiece of any discussion of adolescent development in these groups.

Empirically derived guidelines for assessing the psychosocial needs of children and adolescents with sickle cell.

This paper introduces an empirically derived psychosocial assessment form that may facilitate the incorporation of the growing body of research on sickle cell into the psychosocial assessment process. The psychosocial assessment form was guided by two theoretical models that explain the variability in adjustment among children and adolescents with sickle cell--the Disability-Stress-Coping Model (Wallender, Varni, Babani, Banis, & Wilcox, 1989) and the Transactional Stress and Coping Model (Thompson, Gustafson, George Spock, 1994). The Psychosocial Assessment Form consists of two sections.