Emerging Adults and Substance Use Disorder Treatment: Developmental Considerations and Innovative Approaches

Emerging Adults and Substance Use Disorder Treatment addresses how a societal shift in the timing of developmental tasks affects treatment outcomes for substance use disorders, which are among the most highly prevalent and costly mental health problems in the United States. It presents readers with a summary of the developmental period of emerging adulthood as well as a comprehensive review of state-of-the-art substance use disorder treatments for this group. There are an estimated 30.6 million emerging adults living in the US, and as many as 34.5% of them have serious problems with substances that often require clinical treatments. That equates to 10.5 million emerging adults ages 18-25 in the United States with a substance use disorder. However, research on substance use disorder treatments for emerging adults lags behind that for adolescents and older adults. This book fills a gap for academic audiences on this important and up-and-coming area of research. The first half of this volume address developmental issues associated with emerging adulthood, paying specific attention to how developmental features influence diagnosis and treatment. The second half of the book presents the state-of-the-science on interventions for emerging adults, with each chapter summarizing either a body of work on a particular type of intervention or a special topic affecting intervention delivery to emerging adults.