Half of Youth-Serving Clinicians Screen for Substance Use Disorder at Every Well Visit

THURSDAY, May 22, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Just over half of youth-serving clinicians report that they routinely screen adolescents for substance use disorders (SUDs) at every well visit, according to a study published online May 20 in JAMA Network Open.

Kathleen Ragan-Burnett, M.S.P.H., from the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and colleagues assessed youth-serving clinicians’ screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment practices for SUDs among adolescents. The analysis included survey responses from 1,047 youth-serving clinicians.

The researchers found that most clinicians (60.6 percent) reported that skills in SUD diagnosis were relevant to their practice, and 76.4 percent reported seeing at least one adolescent with an SUD monthly. Just over half of clinicians (56.9 percent) reported screening for SUDs at every well visit, with a high proportion of pediatricians reporting screening at every well visit (69.2 percent). Just over one-third of clinicians (39.3 percent) reported screening at every well visit using a screening tool and just under one-third of clinicians (30.7 percent) offered all components of screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment practice.

“Efforts to improve screening rates through education and systems-based practice changes may facilitate offering anticipatory guidance and SUD treatment in all youth-serving clinical settings,” the authors write. 

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