Digital interventions to facilitate screening, brief interventions, and referral to treatment for substance use among adolescents

Key points
• Substance use in adolescence is linked to short-term and long-term morbidity and mortality.
• Adolescent-focused substance use prevention and treatment services remain limited and difficult to access, highlighting the need for scalable and accessible approaches.
• Digital interventions can improve access to substance use services through enhanced screening processes and brief intervention delivery; but evidence supporting referral to treatment is needed.
• Brief digital interventions have shown efficacy.