Take it personal! Development and modelling study of an indicated prevention programme for substance use in adolescents and young adults with mild intellectual disabilities and borderline intellectual functioning

Take it personal! Development and modelling study of an indicated prevention programme for substance use in adolescents and young adults with mild intellectual disabilities and borderline intellectual functioning

BACKGROUND

This paper describes the theory and development of Take it personal! an indicated prevention programme aimed at reducing substance use in individuals with mild intellectual disabilities and borderline intellectual functioning.

METHOD

The process of the development of Take it personal! followed the steps of the Intervention Mapping protocol. Take it personal! is based on the theory that personality traits are an important construct to understand substance use (14-30 years old). A small modelling study was conducted with six adolescents to examine the feasibility, user-friendliness and potential effectiveness of the intervention.

RESULTS

The results showed that the intervention has good feasibility and user-friendliness. Post-intervention evaluation of frequency, binge drinking and problematic use indicated that use was lower than at pre-intervention.

CONCLUSIONS

Take it Personal! can be a promising preventive intervention designed to reduce substance use in individuals in this target group. A larger scale study is needed to draw further conclusions.

Evaluating a personalized treatment for substance use disorder in people with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning: A study protocol of a multiple baseline across individuals design

BACKGROUND

The prevalence of substance use disorder (SUD) in people with Mild Intellectual Disabilities or Borderline Intellectual Functioning (MID-BIF) is high. However, an effective personalized treatment for people with MID-BIF and SUD is lacking. This paper describes the study protocol of the effectiveness study of Take it Personal!+, a personalized treatment for people with MID-BIF and SUD.

METHODS

The effectiveness of Take it Personal!+ in decreasing substance use will be assessed in a non-concurrent multiple baseline across individuals design comprising ten participants with MID-BIF and SUD. The participants with MID-BIF and SUD will be randomly allocated to one of the five baseline lengths (7-11 days). Substance use, will be assessed during baseline, intervention, and post-treatment phase using a daily diary method.

DISCUSSION

If this study shows that Take it Personal!+ is effective in decreasing substance use, the gap in treatment for people with MID-BIF and SUD will be filled.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

The study is registered in the Netherlands Trial Register (Trial NL4935, registered July 2, 2019).