Recovery and Youth: An Integrative Review

Although rates of alcohol and other substance use disorders in adolescents have been estimated for decades, little is known about the prevalence, pathways, and predictors of remission and long-term recovery among adolescents. This article provides an integrative review of the literature on youth recovery. A final selection of 39 relevant articles was grouped into five sections: treatment outcomes, special emphasis populations, recovery-oriented systems of care, families, and non–abstinence-based approaches. The review recommends more adolescent research in three basic areas: more research about medication-assisted treatment and recovery as well as harm reduction approaches for adolescents; expansion of research on recovery practices for youth who do not receive treatment due to personal choice or societal disparities; and more life course research, which may begin with adolescent participants and extend across the life span. Additionally, the authors suggest the recovery capital model for adolescents and the neuroscience of addiction may provide additional precision and direction for the study of youth recovery.