CTN Youth SIG

The Youth Special Interest Group (SIG) provides a forum for the exchange of information on drug abuse prevention and treatment of adolescents and young adults.  The SIG sponsors a series of lectures from senior investigators and provides the opportunity for early career scientists to hone their presentations skills, share their research, and obtain input on their work. The SIG offers mentoring and consultation for early career scientists, and explores opportunities for developing research on youth drug use prevention and treatment within and outside the CTN. 

The Youth SIG recognizes that no epidemic was ever successfully controlled by purely treating cases.  An essential aspect of controlling epidemics is to reduce the number of new cases.  Because drug use overwhelmingly begins in adolescence, the only way to end the opioid and other substance use disorder epidemics is by reducing the number of youth who use substances and reducing the number of youth who progress to more serious use. 

Bimonthly Seminar Series

The Youth SIG hosts bimonthly seminars via Zoom at 11am Eastern approximately every other 3rd Friday.  

Watch previous seminars:

• Parent-to-Parent Community Support: Helping Families Come Into Contact with Evidence-Informed Concepts and Strategies in the Context of Shared Lived Experience. Presented by Ken M. Carpenter, PhD (11/3/2023)
  
  
• Leveraging Technology to Advance Behavioral Health Equity in Juvenile Justice. Presented by Dr. Marina Tolou-Shams (5/20/2022). 
  
  
• I’m Good: Community Reentry as an Opportunity and Challenge for Improving Young People’s Behavioral Health. Presented by Dr. Elizabeth Barnert (3/18/2022). 
  
  
• Increasing Access to Substance Use Treatment for Justice-Involved Youth: Building Bridges Between the Justice, Treatment and Family Systems. Presented by Dr. Katherine Elkington (1/28/2022). 
  
  
• Measuring and Improving the Quality of Opioid Prescribing to Children and Young Adults. Presented by Dr. Kao-Ping Chua (11/19/2021). 
  
  
• Why Aren’t Today’s Adolescents Using Substances As Much as Prior Generations? Presented by Dr. Jacob Borodovsky (9/24/2021). 
  
  
• Research on Smartphone-Based Interventions for Substance Using Adults, Young Adults, and adolescents. Presented by Dr. Michael Dennis (7/23/2021). 
  
  
• Preventing Opioid Misuse and Opioid Use Disorder in Adolescents and Young Adults. Presented by Dr. Erin Bonar (5/28/2021). 
  
  
• Enhancing Primary Care-Based Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder. Presented by Dr. Scott Hadland (3/26/2021). 

Youth SIG Co-Chairs

Jose Szapocznik 
jszapocz@med.miami.edu 
University of Miami 

Lisa Marsch 
Lisa.A.Marsch@Dartmouth.edu 
Dartmouth College 

To join or to be informed about the CTN Youth SIG, please contact: 
Renae Schmidt, University of Miami
rds174@miami.edu