Definition & Prevalence mon hypothesis, for example, is that individuals with mental health disorders who abuse substances do so in an attempt to self-medicate their symptoms. On the other hand, prolonged abuse of some drugs may produce lasting psychological symptoms (Schottenfeld, 1993). A recent National Comorbidity Survey of the general u.S. population found that 56% of respondents with at l...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of childhood physical and sexual abuse to subsequent lifetime alcohol or drug use disorders among American Indians (AIs) by using cross-sectional and retrospective data collected from a structured epidemiological interview. METHOD A sample of 3,084 AIs from two tribal populations-Southwest and Northern Plains--participated in...

OBJECTIVE Cannabis is the most commonly used illicit substance in the United States and is increasingly being legalized throughout the United States. Many believe that cannabis is relatively harmless, and some believe that cannabis is not addictive. We wondered what the rates of cannabis abuse and dependence might be among adolescents referred for substance use evaluations and also about the in...

BACKGROUND In light of the emphasis on drug abuse, this study explored the relative prevalence of substance use disorders among United Kingdom (UK) prison inmates in the context of findings from a general inmate population in the United States (US). The lead author of the report conducted a structured diagnostic interview with 155 new admissions to one of two prisons in the UK using the CAAPE (...

OBJECTIVES In the Canadian adult population, we aimed to 1) estimate the 12-month prevalence of major depressive disorder (MDD) in persons with a diagnosis of harmful alcohol use, alcohol dependence, and drug dependence; 2) estimate the 12-month prevalence of harmful alcohol use, alcohol dependence, and drug dependence in persons with a 12-month and lifetime diagnosis of MDD; 3) identify socioe...

Despite evidence of substantial comorbidity between psychiatric disorders and substance involvement, the extent to which common genetic factors contribute to their co-occurrence remains understudied. In the current study, we tested for associations between polygenic risk for psychiatric disorders and substance involvement (i.e., ranging from ever-use to severe dependence) among 2573 non-Hispani...

Introduction: The most common substance of abuse/dependence in patients presenting for treatment in western countries is alcohol. Ethyl alcohol or ethanol which is also called medicinal alcohol is used as an official drug compendium. It is also administered as an antidote in methanol poisoning. However, regular consumption of high amounts of alcoholic drinks induces dependence and addiction lea...