Making a Case for Integrating Evidence-Based Sexual Risk Reduction and Mental Health Interventions for Adolescent Girls.
Dianne Morrison-Beedy, Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk
PMID 31403363WHAT IT FOUND
Adolescent girls in a sexual risk reduction trial showed high rates of depression and substance use.
Authors propose combining this trial's intervention with a cognitive-behavioral program to address both sexual and mental health risks, but no combined trial has been conducted.
Key findings
01Baseline data from over 700 girls entering a sexual risk reduction trial showed that 25% had concerning depressive symptoms, and approximately one-third reported recent alcohol or cannabis use.
02The authors propose integrating two existing evidence-based interventions, one for sexual risk reduction and one for mental health, to address co-occurring risks in adolescent girls.
03No trial has yet evaluated the combined effect of these two interventions; the authors call for a comparative effectiveness trial to determine if integration improves outcomes.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This is not a trial of the combined intervention; it is a proposal based on the individual efficacy of two separate programs. The baseline data presented is from a previous trial and is descriptive only; it does not show that mental health symptoms improved with HIPTeens. The authors have significant financial conflicts of interest, as they own companies that sell training and dissemination rights for the specific interventions they are promoting. The paper relies on the assumption that combining two effective interventions will yield better outcomes than either alone, which is not supported by direct evidence in this text.
Declared interests
Dianne Morrison-Beedy is the owner of HIP4Change, LLC, which provides training for HIPTeens. Bernadette Melnyk is the owner of COPE2Thrive, LLC, which disseminates the COPE programs. The authors have direct financial interests in the interventions they recommend combining.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret this paper as evidence that combining HIPTeens and COPE improves patient outcomes. The authors are proposing this integration and calling for a trial to test it, but they have not conducted one. Furthermore, the authors own the companies that sell these interventions, so their recommendation should be viewed with caution until independent trials are published.