Brief interventions for young adults who use drugs: The moderating effects of resilience and trauma

Among participants in an intervention clinical trial (N = 602), we examined resilience as a moderator of substance use outcomes by intervention condition and between participants with and without severe traumatic stress (STS). Eligibility included men and women ages 18–39 with recent multidrug use; drug treatment enrollees were excluded. Outcome measures were past 90-day frequencies of substance use and abstinence. Putative moderators were measured using the Resilience Research Centre's Adult Resilience Measure (RRC-ARM) and the Traumatic Stress Scale from the Global Appraisal of Individual Needs (GAIN). Analyses employed hierarchical linear models. High resilience predicted better substance use outcomes, and the ordering of intervention effects for high resilience participants was stepwise by intervention condition intensity. Participants with low resilience scores had poorer outcomes, and those outcomes were largely unaffected by intervention condition. Participants without STS experienced the interventions similarly to the overall sample. Regardless of the level of resilience, however, participants with STS did not benefit from the interventions. The findings point to the importance of screening for both resilience and traumatic stress prior to intervention to maximize the impact of brief interventions for substance users, and also to link those needing more intensive approaches to additional services and professional care.