Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to LaTrice Montgomery, Ph. The National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network CTN , a research platform for multi-site behavioral, pharmacological, and integrated trials designed to evaluate the effectiveness of substance use treatments in community settings with diversified patient populations, provides a wealth of research knowledge on substance use.
Although CTN trials have enrolled over 5, Black individuals since its inception in , there has been no synthesis of the findings, discussion of the implications, or suggestions for future research for Black individuals. There is still a continued need to identify the most effective treatments for Black individuals who use substances.
The CTN offers several untapped opportunities to further advance research on Black individuals who use substances e. Black individuals are frequently underrepresented in substance use treatment studies, and when they are represented, researchers often fail to conduct moderator or subgroup analyses by race, which contributes to gaps in knowledge about substance use treatment for Blacks.
Thus, this review addresses this gap in the literature by focusing specifically on Black individuals who use substances. Existing reviews of substance use among Black people are limited in scope. The one comprehensive review of 23 articles was limited to research conducted by social workers, focused only on substance use interventions, and few of the samples were exclusively Black Clark, McGovern, Mgbeokwere, Wooten, Owusu, and McGraw, In addition, although some studies in existing literature reviews were multisite, many were single-site studies.
Wells et al. The CTN includes multisite behavioral, pharmacological, and integrated research projects aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of alternative treatment interventions in community settings with diversified patient populations. Because the purpose of the CTN is to use science to improve drug treatment, it is important that CTN research informs drug treatment outcomes for all, including Black people.
