Motivational Interviewing for Adolescents in the Emergency Department

Motivational interviewing (MI) is defined as a collaborative, patient-centered counseling style used to strengthen motivation for behavioral change by evoking an individual’s own reasons for change. It has been extensively used to address substance use and has shown effectiveness in facilitating a variety of healthy behaviors among a wide range of age groups and in an array of settings. To review the literature involving the use of MI for adolescents in the emergency department (ED), we performed a literature search using PsycINFO, PubMed, and Google-Scholar and identified 16 randomized controlled studies targeting 7 health behaviors. Of these, 31% (n = 5) targeted alcohol use alone; 12.5% (n = 2) targeted aggression and violence, marijuana use, tobacco use, linkage to outpatient services for mental health treatment, alcohol use, and aggression; and 1 study targeted seatbelt and helmet use. Overall results suggest that using MI with adolescents in the ED is feasible and more effective at reducing risk behaviors than ED treatment as usual.