Mono- versus polydrug abuse patterns among publicly funded clients

Abstract

To examine patterns of mono-versus polydrug abuse, data were obtained from intake records of 69,891 admissions to publicly funded treatment programs in Tennessee between 1998 and 2004. While descriptive statistics were employed to report frequency and patterns of mono-and polydrug abuse by demographic variables and by study years, bivariate logistic regression was applied to assess the probability of being a mono-or polydrug abuser for a number of demographic variables. The researchers found that during the study period 51.3% of admissions reported monodrug abuse and 48.7% reported polydrug abuse. Alcohol, cocaine, and marijuana were the most commonly abused substances, both alone and in combination. Odds ratio favored polydrug abuse for all but one drug category-other drugs. Gender did not affect drug abuse patterns; however, admissions for African Americans and those living in urban areas exhibited higher probabilities of polydrug abuse. Age group also appeared to affect drug abuse patterns, with higher odds of monodrug abuse among minors and adults over 45 years old. The discernable prevalence of polydrug abuse suggests a need for developing effective prevention strategies and treatment plans specific to polydrug abuse.

Subtyping of substance use disorders in a high-risk welfare-to-work sample: A latent class analysis

“…Past research has demonstrated significant heterogeneity in patterns of co-occurring substance abuse/dependence in epidemiological and clinical samples (Agrawal et al, 2007;Gossop et al, 2002;Kedia et al, 2007). Our work extends these findings to a large racially and ethnically diverse sample of public assistance recipients with SUDs.…”

“…Epidemiologic and treatment outcome studies typically focus on only one class of drug abuse/dependence despite the fact that most patients with substance use disorders (SUDs) have abused more than one substance (Brecht, Huang, Evans, & Yih-Ing, 2008;Rounsaville, Petry, & Carroll, 2003). Those studies that have focused on polysubstance use disorders typically consider individuals with polysubstance abuse/dependence as a homogeneous category, when there may be a great deal of heterogeneity among individuals who abuse multiple substances (Conway, Kane, Ball, Poling, & Rounsaville, 2003;Kedia, Sell, & Relyea, 2007). Furthermore, the current treatment system is fragmented.…”

Prevalence and Patterns of Polydrug Use in Latin America: Analysis of Population-based Surveys in Six Countries

“…Raveis and Kandel (1987) found that 85-95% of abusers, other than those who were marijuana and alcohol dependent, had ceased multiple drug abuse by age 30. Similarly, Kedia, Sell and Relyea (2007) found that among heroin and amphetamine abusers, the number of drugs used decreased with age. In contrast to these previous studies, the present study found that while polydrug use was higher among individuals aged 18-34 years, no drug use prevailed among adolescents (12-17 years), and monodrug use was more prevalent among adults 45 years and over.…”

Longitudinal Relationship Between Psychological Distress and Multiple Substance Use: Results From a Three-Year Multisite Natural-History Study of Rural Stimulant Users

“…and illicit drugs, although usually they have a single "drug of choice" (Brecht et al, 2008;Kedia et al, 2007). Previous research has generally focused on one or two substances or psychiatric disorders/symptomatology only.…”

“…Measures of multiple drug use do not easily lend themselves to summary, in part because of the lack of consensus among comorbidity researchers about methodologies. To assess substance use comorbid with mental-health symptoms, researchers have relied on the Drug Use Composite of the Addiction Severity Index (McLellan et al, 1992) or a count of substances used with a measure of the frequency of use during the observation period (Brecht et al, 2008;Kedia et al, 2007). However, it is not clear what are the most useful measures of multiple substance use for examining mental-health issues, and this article examines several measurements.…”