We ask authors to describe their impressions regarding the implications of their accepted work, how their findings will change practice, and what is noteworthy about the work.

Latino Immigrants’ Biological Parents’ Histories of Substance Use Problems in Their Country of Origin Predict Their Pre- and Post-Immigration Alcohol Use Problems
Timothy C. Blackson , Mario De La Rosa , Mariana Sanchez , Tan Li
Substance Abuse
Vol. 36, Iss. 3, 2015

This is the first study to document that biological parents’ histories of substance use problems in their country of origin predict recent young adult Latino immigrants’ severity of alcohol use problems pre- and post-immigration to the U.S. As such, it is important for clinicians, health care service providers and social policy advocates to encourage recent Latino immigrants to disclosure their family histories of substance use problems along with their current alcohol use problems so that culturally competent prevention and intervention programs can offer services to redirect Latino immigrants on trajectories to develop alcohol use disorders to healthier post-immigration outcomes. Furthermore, future research studies guided by innovative differential susceptibility theory, which take into account intergenerational family histories of substance use problems, may elucidate etiological mechanisms, processes and gene-environment interactions underlying Latino immigrants’ trajectories to both good and poor post-immigration outcomes.

We ask authors to describe their impressions regarding the implications of their accepted work, how their findings will change practice, and what is noteworthy about the work.

Implementing Adolescent Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) Education in a Pediatric Residency Curriculum
Patricia Schram , Sion K. Harris , Shari Van Hook , Sara Forman , Enrico Mezzacappa , Roman Pavlyuk , Sharon Levy
Substance Abuse
Vol. 36, Iss. 3, 2015

This manuscript describes implementation of an adolescent SBIRT curriculum into pediatric and child psychiatry residency programs.  We found that use of a highly structured algorithm to guide practice and simple, highly structured brief interventions appears to be a successful training approach as residents and preceptors consistently documented accurate use of the SBIRT algorithm immediately after the training.  Future research could determine whether web-based tutorials are as effective as in-person instruction and which methods are most effective for sustaining SBIRT practices.

We ask authors to describe their impressions regarding the implications of their accepted work, how their findings will change practice, and what is noteworthy about the work.

Synthetic Cannabinoids: Use and Predictors in a Community Sample of Young Adults
Celeste M. Caviness , Golfo Tzilos , Bradley J. Anderson , Michael D. Stein
Substance Abuse
Vol. 36, Iss. 3, 2015

In this large community sample of young adults, synthetic cannabinoids (SC) use was as common as opioid or cocaine use, and overlapped with binge drinking, cigarettes, and particularly marijuana use. As a marker of polysubstance abuse, clinicians should ask young adults, particularly men and those not in school, about synthetic cannabanoids.

We ask authors to describe their impressions regarding the implications of their accepted work, how their findings will change practice, and what is noteworthy about the work.

Vida PURA: A Cultural Adaptation of Screening and Brief Intervention to Reduce Unhealthy Drinking Among Latino Day Laborers
India J. Ornelas , Claire Allen , Catalina Vaughan , Emily C. Williams , Nalini Negi
Substance Abuse
Vol. 36, Iss. 3, 2015

Brief intervention is known to reduce drinking in primary care, however because health care access is limited for Latino immigrants, traditional brief interventions are unlikely to reach this population. Our findings suggested there is a significant need for interventions to address unhealthy alcohol use among Latino day laborers, as well as ways in which brief intervention could be culturally adapted to be more effective in this population.

We ask authors to describe their impressions regarding the implications of their accepted work, how their findings will change practice, and what is noteworthy about the work.

Addressing Adolescent Substance Use: Teaching Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) and Motivational Interviewing (MI) to Residents
Amy E. Whittle , Sara M. Buckelew , Jason M. Satterfield , Paula J. Lum , Patricia O’Sullivan
Substance Abuse
Vol. 36, Iss. 3, 2015

This paper describes a blended curriculum to teach SBIRT to medical trainees seeing adolescent patients. The authors suggest the use of self-reflection worksheets to help boost trainee skillfulness in motivational interviewing (MI); given the logistic difficulties of observing trainees with patients or of using standardized patients, this approach could offer an efficient way to reinforce principles of MI.