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Motivational Enhancement Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - 5 Sessions (MET/CBT5)

Scientific Rating:
3
Promising Research Evidence
See scale of 1-5
Child Welfare Relevance Rating:
2
Medium
See scale of 1-3

Note: The MET/CBT5 program was not responsive to the CEBC's inquiry. The following information was obtained from publicly available sources.

Brief Description

The Motivational Enhancement Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - 5 Sessions (MET/CBT5) program has been rated by the CEBC in the area of: Substance Abuse Treatment (Adolescent).

  • Child Welfare Outcome: Child/Family Well-Being
  • Types of Maltreatment: Does not target any specific kind of maltreatment
  • Target Population: Not Specified

MET/CBT5 is a brief treatment approach for adolescents with cannabis use disorders which consists of two individual motivational enhancement therapy (MET) sessions followed by three group cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) sessions. The two initial individual MET sessions are primarily intended to enhance adolescents' motivation to address their marijuana use and to prepare the clients for the group sessions, with an introduction to functional analysis and the concept of triggers. The purpose of the three group sessions is to assist clients in the development of skills useful for stopping or reducing marijuana use. The CBT sessions focus on the following skills:

  • Learning basic skills for refusing offers of marijuana
  • Developing a plan for pleasant drug-free activities
  • Establishing a social network that will support recovery
  • Coping with high-risk situations
  • Recovering from a relapse, should one occur

Education and Training Resources

Publicly available information indicates there is a manual that describes how to implement this program, and there is some training available for this program.
See contact info below.

Training Contact:

Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research

This program is rated a "3 - Promising Research Evidence" on the Scientific Rating Scale based on the published, peer-reviewed research available. The practice must have at least one study utilizing some form of control (e.g., untreated group, placebo group, matched wait list study) establishing the practice's benefit over the placebo, or found it to be comparable to or better than an appropriate comparison practice. Please see the Scientific Rating Scale for more information.

Show relevant research...

Dennis, M. L., Godley, S. H., Diamond, G. S., Tims, F. M., Babor, T., Donaldson, J., Funk, R. R. (2004). The Cannabis Youth Treatment (CYT) study: Main findings from two randomized trials. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 27, 197-213.

Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial
Number of Participants: 600

Population:

  • Age range — 13-18 years
  • Race/Ethnicity — 61% Caucasian/White, 30% African American/Black, 4% Hispanic/Latino, 6% Other/Mixed
  • Gender — Not Specified
  • Status — Adolescents and their families were recruited from sequential admissions to 4 treatment sites.

Location / Institution: Farmington, CT/University of Connecticut Health Center, Madison County, IL/Chestnut Health Systems, Philadelphia, PA/Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and St. Petersburg, FL/Operation PAR.

Summary: (To include comparison groups, outcomes, measures, notable limitations)
This article presents the main outcome findings from two inter-related randomized trials conducted at 4 sites to evaluate the effectiveness of 5 short-term outpatient interventions for adolescents with cannabis use disorders. Trial 1 compared MET/CBT5 with a 12-session regimen of MET and CBT (MET/CBT12) and another that included family education and therapy components (Family Support Network [FSN]). Trial II compared the MET/CBT5 with the Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach (A-CRA) and Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT). All 5 Cannabis Youth Treatment (CYT) interventions demonstrated significant pre-post treatment improvements during the 12 months after random assignment to a treatment intervention in the 2 main outcomes: Days of abstinence, as measured by self-reports using Global Appraisal of Individual Needs (GAIN) (a standardized semi-structured interview), and the percent of adolescents in recovery (no use or abuse/dependence problems and living in the community). Overall, the clinical outcomes were very similar across sites and conditions. Two notable limitations of the study are its reliance on participant self-report and the lack of a no-treatment control group.

Length of post-intervention follow-up: 38-46 weeks post-intervention (Treatment length 6-14 weeks, with 3, 6, 9, and 12-month follow-ups after intake).

Mason, M., & Posner, M. (2009). Brief substance abuse treatment with urban adolescents: A translational research study. Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse, 18(2), 193-206.

Type of Study: Non-randomized comparison study
Number of Participants: 102

Population:

  • Age range — 13-20 years
  • Race/Ethnicity — 44% white, 36% African American, 9% Hispanic, 11% mixed/other
  • Gender — 80% male, 20% female
  • Status — Participants were enrolled in a brief, manualized substance abuse treatment program between January 2004 and September 2006 and were referred by health care providers, schools, and the juvenile justice system.

Location / Institution: Philadelphia, PA

Summary: (To include comparison groups, outcomes, measures, notable limitations)
The purpose of this translational research study was to test a brief, manualized adolescent substance abuse treatment - MET/CBT5 - protocol's effects in an urban community setting compared to a sample in an experimental study from which the treatment was first employed (Cannabis Youth Treatment, CYT, Study; Dennis et al., 2004). Participants in the community group were adolescents who were treated with MET/CBT5 and followed for six months post-intake. Comparison group data were drawn from participants in the Cannabis Youth Treatment (CYT) Study (Dennis et al., 2004), a randomized trial testing adolescent substance abuse treatment with 600 participating youth; this comparison sample also received MET/CBT5. The Global Appraisal of Individual Needs (GAIN) assessment was used to measure substance use and mental health. Results showed that, by month 6, alcohol use for the comparison (CYT Study) group increased 0.72 days while alcohol use for the community group decreased 0.58 days. Limitations include the nature of adolescents' self-reports of substance use,

Length of post-intervention follow-up: 3 & 6 months post-intake.

References

Dennis, M., Titus, J. C., Diamond, G., Donaldson, J., Godley, S. H., Tims, F. M., …Scott, C. K. (2002). The cannabis youth treatment experiment: rationale, study design and analysis plans. Addiction, 97(Suppl 1),16-34.

Sampl, S., & Kadden, R. (2001). MET and CBT for adolescent cannabis users: 5 sessions, CYT series, volume 1. (BKD384). Rockville, MD: CSAT, SAMHSA. Retrieved on April 1, 2010, from kap.samhsa.gov/products/manuals/cyt/.

Contact Information

Name: Randolph D. Muck, M.Ed.
Title: Senior Clinical Consultant
Agency/Affiliation: Advocates for Youth and Family Treatment
Website: www.web-ta.com
Email:
Phone: (240) 397-3918

Date Reviewed: April 2010