Drug Disorders Has Affected 10% of Americans -

A Variety of Drug Disorders Has Affected 10% of Americans - CME Teaching Brief® - MedPage Today
Primary source: Archives of General PsychiatrySource reference: Compton WM et al. "Prevalence, Correlates, Disability, and Comorbidity of DSM-IV Drug Abuse and Dependence in the United States: Results From the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions." Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2007;64:566-576.
BETHESDA, Md., May 7 -- About one American in 10 has had a problem with legal or illegal drug use according to researchers here.That figure includes about one in 50 who has been frankly dependent on drugs at some point, according to Wilson Compton, M.D., of the National Institute on Drug Abuse here.
Action Points
Explain to interested patients that drug use disorder includes drug abuse and drug dependence, according to the DSM-IV.
Note that this survey suggests that about one American in 10 has either abused drugs or been dependent on drugs over the course of his or her lifetime.
These data come from face-to-face interviews with 43,093 persons in the 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, Dr. Compton and colleagues reported in the May issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.
The survey is the first in more than 16 years to try to get a handle on drug use among American adults, the researchers said.
"Although extensive data on drug use in the U.S. population have been available on an ongoing basis for adults and adolescents," they reported, "epidemiologic data on the prevalence, correlates, disability, treatment and comorbidity of drug use disorders among adults are seldom collected."
Using DSM-IV definitions, the survey used a validated questionnaire aimed at discerning details of alcohol and drug use disorders, nicotine dependence, mood and anxiety disorders, and seven of the 10 personality disorders, the researchers said.
The questionnaire asked about the use of sedatives, tranquilizers, opiates (other than heroin), stimulants, hallucinogens, cannabis, cocaine (including crack cocaine), inhalants/solvents, heroin, and other drugs.
The study found:
10.3% of Americans had drug-use disorder at some point in their lives.
That was broken down into drug abuse (7.7%) and drug dependence (2.6%).
Over the year immediately prior to the interview, 2.0% of Americans reported a drug-use disorder.
That broke down into 1.4% reporting drug abuse and 0.6% reporting drug dependence. /.../