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Objective: The combination of the high prevalence of problematic substance use and substance use disorders (SUD) with the low rates of spontaneous remission continues to generate interest in the development of novel and efficacious interventions. Theoretically, episodic future thinking (EFT) is capable of targeting various underlying psychological and neurobiological substrates of SUD by traversing various research domain criteria systems. Method: The systematic review examines EFT as a potentially efficacious intervention for problematic substance use and SUD. The review follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. We examined 46 full-text studies (from 1,238 total records obtained from APA PsycInfo and Pubmed databases and reference list search), which yielded a final sample of 16 studies. Results: The studies showed heterogeneity in their risk of bias, EFT protocols, and control conditions. Overall, EFT showed benefits in reducing self-reported or task-based substance use-related outcomes. Conclusions: Future research directions include establishing the feasibility of EFT, examining the generalizability in decreasing realworld substance use, identifying mediators and moderators of EFT outcomes, and determining the sustainability of EFT effects over time. EFT has high potential for dissemination. Limitations and potential for future research are discussed. Public Health Significance Statement This systematic review found that EFT improves substance use correlates/proxies. The results also point to future work necessary to establish EFT's efficacy and effectiveness as a substance use intervention. EFT has potential for broad dissemination as a viable treatment strategy for maladaptive substance use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]