Trajectories in Use of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Among Stimulant Users in Rural Areas

Abstract

OBJECTIVE This study examined substance use and mental health service utilization among a 3-year longitudinal sample of active rural stimulant users. METHODS One-step transition probabilities were constructed between the two types of service use for each consecutive pairs of interviews in order to examine the resulting steady-state probabilities among our multiple one-step transition matrices. RESULTS Most participants received no substance or mental health services. On average, the limiting probabilities for each state regardless of initial probabilities were 82% for having received neither services, 10% for receiving mental health but not substance use treatment, 6% for receiving substance use but not mental health treatment, and 2% for receiving both services. CONCLUSIONS Previous analyses with these data found that both mental health symptomatology and substance use declined over time,suggesting that need for services would also have declined. Many of the changes in drug use may have occurred without specialty treatment.