Treatment Basics

Dr. Kathleen Meyers has dedicated her career to clinical research in adolescent substance use disorders (SUD) and is a recognized leader in the assessment and treatment of adolescent SUD, delinquency, and co-occurring disorders. She is the author of the Comprehensive Adolescent Severity Inventory (CASI), a multidimensional assessment instrument for youth with substance use and mental health disorders that is used throughout the United States, Canada, and internationally.

The CASI is implemented in school systems, substance use treatment programs, mental health programs, and juvenile courts, and is a mandated assessment tool in several states. It was recently selected as the lead instrument in the Common Assessment Battery for adolescent-funded studies within the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s Clinical Trials Network and the National Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Research Studies (CJDATS) Network.

In 2004, Dr. Meyers received the Research Award of Excellence from the Caron Foundation. She has achieved some of the highest follow-up rates in the country in her adolescent research studies, consistently exceeding 92%. Dr. Meyers has served on numerous advisory panels, peer review committees, institutional review boards, and editorial review boards. Her research has been funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). She has also consulted with multiple state drug and alcohol systems in the development of statewide assessment and outcomes monitoring systems.

Dr. Meyers is a former Senior Research Scientist at the Treatment Research Institute in Philadelphia, the former Director of Research at the Urban Affairs Coalition and former Vice President of Research at Philadelphia Safe and Sound. She has also served as an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

She has helped transform how adolescents are assessed—ensuring that young people receive accurate evaluations and appropriate, evidence-informed care.