Most research regarding the coincidence of medical conditions and substance abuse has focused o­n patients treated in publicly-funded programs, inpatient populations or untreated individuals from the U.S. general population. Very little research o­n this topic exists for the insured population, especially for individuals covered by managed care. Jennifer Mertens and her colleagues explore this issue in their study of a sample of 747 adult substance abuse patients who were examined for diagnoses of 23 common medical and psychiatric conditions in the 12-month period prior to substance abuse treatment. The authors compared this treatment group to a control group of 3,690 matched controls enrolled in the same health plan. They find that substance abuse patients were about twice as likely to be diagnosed with injuries/overdoses during the study period compared to patients from the control group. Regarding psychiatric illness, a diagnosis of depression was about 10 times more prevalent among substance abuse patients than the control group, anxiety was about eight times more prevalent and psychoses were about 18 times more prevalent in substance abuse patients than control patients. Substance abuse patients also had a higher incidence of lower back pain, headache, arthritis and several other common chronic disorders. The report further breaks down the findings into specific drug dependence groups and specific demographic groups. o­ne limitation of the study is that the cases of substance abuse patients selected for the treatment group had greater opportunity to be diagnosed than those of the control group. Nevertheless, the authors conclude that the findings underscore the linkages between substance abuse treatment and primary care, and they suggest greater coordination with patients' medical providers to improve treatment outcomes.

Associated Grant ID: 030983
Written by: Mertens JR, Lu YW, Parthasarathy S, Moore C and Weisner CM
Archives of Internal Medicine, 163(20): 2511-2517, November 10, 2003

Source:
http://www.rwjf.org/research/researchByArea.jsptitle=
Alcohol+and+Drug+Addiction+Prevention+and+Treatment&id=000003&detailID=1294