Historical Trends in Veteran Community Substance Use Treatment: 2000-2019.
Subst Use Misuse
; 57(10): 1642-1645, 2022.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35819019
ABSTRACT
Background:
Substance use is a significant health crisis for the Veteran population. Prior research has thoroughly examined Veteran substance use within Veterans Health Administration (VHA) settings. However, such data tends to be outdated, and there is minimal research on substance use services delivered outside of VHA systems. This study examines historical patterns of Veteran substance use using a large sample of community-based substance-use treatment admissions.Methods:
Data were drawn from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive Treatment Episode Data Set-Admissions. Of the 39,425,886 total admissions between 2000 and 2019, 1,361,339 were of Veterans. Analyses compared Veteran versus non-Veteran admissions on demographics and historical trends in nature of substance-use admissions.Results:
Relative to non-Veterans, Veteran admissions were more likely to be prompted by alcohol use. Over time, heterogeneity in substances prompting admissions has increased dramatically for both Veterans and non-Veterans, with particularly notable increases in opiate and stimulant use.Conclusion:
Results suggest Veterans admitted to community substance-use treatment are unique relative to their non-Veteran peers. Development and implementation of treatments to target a range of substances while also considering the environmental challenges (e.g., homelessness) commonly faced by this population appear essential to best servicing community-based Veterans.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Veterans
/
Ill-Housed Persons
/
Substance-Related Disorders
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
America do norte
Language:
En
Journal:
Subst Use Misuse
Journal subject:
TRANSTORNOS RELACIONADOS COM SUBSTANCIAS
Year:
2022
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States
Publication country:
ENGLAND
/
ESCOCIA
/
GB
/
GREAT BRITAIN
/
INGLATERRA
/
REINO UNIDO
/
SCOTLAND
/
UK
/
UNITED KINGDOM