MET/CBT 5 is a manualized brief adolescent substance abuse treatment program. The manual was developed by Susan Sampl, Ph.D. & Ronald Kadden, Ph.D. as a part of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) Cannabis Youth Treatment (CYT) Series trials. MET/CBT 5 consists of 2 individual Motivational Enhancement sessions and 3 Cognitive Behavioral group therapy sessions. The individual sessions utilize Dr Millers Motivational Enhancement approaches which focus on building rapport and developing the client’s motivation for change. The 3 CBT group sessions focus on developing skills for refusal and maintaining abstinence.

MET/CBT 5 proved effective in the CYT randomized trial study as well as the follow up Effective Adolescent Treatment (EAT) studies. In the CYT studies CSAT funded a large field experiment that evaluated five different approaches. The researchers selected well-known, effective therapies that are used with adults and adapted these therapies for use with teens using marijuana. The study was conducted by experts in adolescent and substance abuse treatment and was the largest study for teens conducted to date. More than 600 teens and their families were treated, and preliminary findings showed that each therapy worked. The CYT study only investigated the protocols effective treatment for Cannabis addiction. The EAT grant expanded the use of the MET/CBT 5 protocol to include effective treatment of adolescent substance addiction in general.

CSAT funded an even larger treatment capacity expansion study with 30 adolescent treatment providers in diverse populations of adolescents around the United States. The EAT grant further demonstrated that the MET/CBT 5 protocol could be effective in treating adolescent addiction in majority populations & primarily minority populations as well as urban, suburban and rural populations.

 

The Cannabis Youth Treatment Series originally demonstrated effective treatment for adolescent marijuana abuse/dependency disorders but the subsequent Effective Adolescent Treatment series (EAT) demonstrated that MET CBT 5 can be effective in treating other substance disorders in diverse populations as well. To be used for this purpose the materials in the manual need to be adopted to include other abused substances.