Latinos are exposed to adverse psychosocial factors that impact their health outcomes. Given the heterogeneity and rapid growth of this population, there is an urgent need to understand the mechanisms through which psychosocial factors impact substance abuse and anxiety between immigrant and U.S. born Latino adults. The present study employs a multi-group path analysis using Mplus 7.2 to examin...

The evaluation policy of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is described in this article. Three studies are presented that exemplify SAMHSA's evaluations. These include evaluations of a program to prevent substance abuse among pregnant and postpartum women and their infants; a Job Corps treatment enrichment program; and the McKinney program for homeless perso...

OBJECTIVE This study evaluated whether sexual orientation-specific differences in substance use behaviors exist among adults entering substance abuse treatment. METHOD Admissions records (July 2007-December 2009) were examined for treatment programs in San Francisco, California receiving government funding. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) persons (n = 1,441) were compared to heterosexual per...

Legal coercion is frequently used to leverage substance abuse treatment upon persons who would otherwise not seek it voluntarily. Various methodological and conceptual problems of the existing research have prevented a clear understanding of its effectiveness. The influence of legal coercion on retention in substance abuse treatment was examined using a national survey of programs in the public...

BACKGROUND Although inadequate treatment of pain is a problem for hospice patients, increases in the medical use of opioids have been accompanied by increasing levels of abuse and diversion in the community. Balancing pain relief with concerns about abuse and diversion is a difficult issue for hospices. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to determine policies and practices in Virginia hospi...

Alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drug use are pervasive throughout the world. Substance use problems are among the major contributors to the global disease burden, which includes disability and mortality. The benefits of treatment far outweigh the economic costs. Despite the availability of treatment services, however, the vast majority of people with substance use disorders do not seek or use tre...

In 1978, Regier and colleagues (1) coined the term “de facto mental health and substance abuse system” after finding that most patients with mental illness and substance abuse are treated in the general medical sector, not in psychiatric settings. Despite the availability of this system, many patients with mental disorders and substance abuse do not receive a diagnosis, and many do not receive ...

Background Mental illness and substance abuse are highly comorbid conditions. At the individual level, symptoms of one can influence symptoms of the other and therefore demand treatment approaches specific to the combination of substance abused and mental illness. At the population level, co-occurring substance use and mental illness challenge public health prevention efforts and decrease treat...