The activities of community coalitions include outreach, education, prevention, service delivery, capacity building, empowerment, community action, and systems change. The presumption is that successful community coalitions are able to identify new resources to continue their activities and sustain their impact in the community over time. Given the large investment in community coalitions, researchers are beginning to systematically explore the factors that affect the sustainability of community coalitions once their initial funding ends. Improving cultural and linguistic competence is an important strategy for addressing persistent behavioral health disparities experienced by diverse communities, including the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender population and racial and ethnic minority groups. These diverse populations tend to have less access to prevention services and poorer behavioral health outcomes.
What are some prevention programs for substance abuse?
Prevention also includes reductionof stigma, and consequently of barriers to treatment. Culturally and linguistically diverse populations face greater challenges to accessing OUD treatment (Gainsbury, 2016). Consequently, it is vital that health and treatment providers create a more inclusive care environment by developing a greater awareness and understanding of the cultural, structural, and linguistic factors that may help their patients feel more comfortable in accessing care. The authors recognize the pivotal role the socioecological approach has played in shaping responses to various health conditions, including mental health conditions (Akers et al., 2023; National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, 2017). However, despite its proven merits, the socioecological approach remains underused and its integration into the field of SUD prevention has been limited. Therefore, the primary purpose of this paper is to articulate the application of this approach and underscore its significance within the overarching context of SUD prevention.
- Epidemiological studies have repeatedly shown that environments with high levels of stressors, poor social support, easy access to drugs, and lack of opportunities and alternative reinforcers increase drug use and addiction risk85, 86.
- According to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), a person must have at least two signs in the symptoms section over 12 months to be diagnosed with substance use disorder.
- Cannabis use disorder happens when it starts to take priority over daily life, often beginning with a strong mental attachment.
- However, given the fact that other recent systematic reviews conclude that affective or knowledge-based programs are only marginally effective for SUD prevention in populations without a mental disorder (Faggiano et al., 2008), this risk seems negligible.
- Through types of treatment such as talk therapy, clients get support that focuses on helping with both the emotional and behavioral aspects of substance use.
- Importantly, evidence-based prevention strategies can help people avoid substance use and substance use disorders.
How is NIDA researching co-occurring disorders and other health conditions?
This model identifies multiple levels of influence, including individual, relationship, community, and societal factors. Recognizing these influences allows tailored interventions aimed at reducing risk and enhancing protective factors. Effective harm reduction strategies contribute significantly to public health by reducing overdose deaths and the transmission of infectious diseases. They create a safer environment for individuals who use drugs, empowering them to seek treatment and connect to essential health services. Additionally, these strategies alleviate strain on healthcare systems by decreasing emergency room visits related to drug-related issues. Aase, Jason, and Robinson (2008) reviewed the literature and found that 12-Step participation was effective for reducing substance use and mental illness because the social support provided by the 12-Step programs helped the patient stay in recovery.
The prevalence of past 30-day use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana declined significantly among both middle school and high school students. The prevalence of past 30-day alcohol use dropped the most in absolute percentage point terms, declining by 2.8 percentage points among middle school students and declining by 3.8 percentage points among high school students. The prevalence of past 30-day tobacco use declined by 1.9 percentage points among middle school students, and by 3.2 percentage points among high school students from DFC grantees’ first report to their most recent report.
Is addiction a mental illness?
Methadone or buprenorphine are recommended for pregnant women, as there are insufficient data on naltrexone’s safety in this population. For patients with a history of cardiac arrhythmias, methadone might be contraindicated, due to its QT‐prolongation effects, which do not occur with buprenorphine or naltrexone. Certain risk factors for SUD are more important at specific developmental stages76, and risk factors that occur at earlier ages predispose to exposure to other risk factors later in the individual’s life, often multiplying their effect.
What are the symptoms of substance use disorder?
Consequently, some individuals resorted to seeking illicit alternatives for pain relief, paradoxically exacerbating the very issue that the guideline sought to address (Coffin et al., 2020). The United States has a long history of politicizing, moralizing, and racializing drug use, a history that existed for nearly a century before President Richard Nixon formally declared the “war on drugs” in the 1970s (Rosino and Hughey, 2018). For example, prior to the enactment of the 1914 Harrison Narcotics Act, proponents of racial prejudice warned Congress, claiming that “most of the attacks upon White women of the South are the direct result of a cocaine-crazed Negro brain” (Nunn, 2002). NIDA funds research to understand risk and protective factors, to reduce risk factors and bolster protective factors, and to translate this understanding into evidence-based strategies and determine how best to implement and scale these strategies. They can refer you to a qualified mental health professional, such as a psychologist, psychiatrist, or clinical social worker, who can help you figure out the next steps. Updates about mental health topics, including NIMH news, upcoming events, mental disorders, funding opportunities, and research.
When mental illnesses and substance abuse co-exists, it’s often difficult to determine which came first. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants in combination with CBT have been found to be highly effective for treating clients with an AUD and depression (Cornelius et al., 1997; Moak et al., 2003). Despite the positive findings on the use of SSRIs antidepressants in these studies, contradictory evidence exists for the direct effect of SSRI antidepressants on drinking outcomes (Mariani & Levin, 2004; Torrens, Fonseca, Mateu, & Farre, 2005). In fact, the preponderance of the evidence suggests that people with AUD and depression drink less when treated with antidepressants as a result of their depression improving.
Knowledge about the dangers of drugs also helps in building a resilient mindset against addiction. Hailey Shafir is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor, Licensed Clinical Addiction Specialist, and Certified Clinical Supervisor with extensive experience in counseling people with mental health and addictive disorders. A co-occurring disorder is the co-existence of a substance use disorder and mental illness in the same person at the same time. NIDA plays a leading role in the National Institutes of Health HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-term®) Initiative, an effort to develop new scientific solutions to the national opioid addiction and overdose public health crisis and to improve pain management.
The conversation needs to be elevated beyond individual positions on the matter to include structural and societal factors. Here, the authors seek prevention of substance use and mental disorders not to discredit the biomedical view but merely to provide support for more inclusive problem statements and solutions. Substances change the way your brain works, which makes it hard to stop taking a substance, even if you want to. While it may be one of the most difficult things to do, it’s OK to ask for help when you need it. You can’t prevent all cases of substance use disorder because there are a lot of factors (many of which are outside of your control) that could play a role in how the condition develops.
- One of the most impactful models demonstrating effectiveness in preventing substance use among adolescents is the Icelandic Prevention Model (IPM).
- A 2022 meta‐analysis found an association of weekly cannabis use (vs. no use) with a 35% increase in risk of developing psychosis; it also found an association of daily or near‐daily use with a 76% increase in that risk.
- In fact, the preponderance of the evidence suggests that people with AUD and depression drink less when treated with antidepressants as a result of their depression improving.
- For example, the United States experienced an excessive focus on increased opioid prescribing as a response to the opioid overdose crisis, often at the expense of supportive strategies (Dasgupta, Beletsky, and Ciccarone, 2018).
- Engaging in positive activities can fill time that might otherwise lead to boredom, further diminishing the desire for substance use.
Educational Resources and the Socio-Ecological Model
Twelve-step participation has been found to be very effective for patients with dual diagnoses, and findings suggest that the best approach may be to encourage 12-Step participation to assist with sobriety while providing other needed services. Donovan and Floyd (2008) discussed methods for improving 12-Step participation and indicate that 12-Step Facilitation (TSF) should be routinely integrated into treatment of addiction. Minkoff, Zweben, Rosenthal, and Ries (2003) describe the efforts of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), which publishes placement criteria for assigning patients who abuse substances to different levels of treatment. ASAM is working to revise the classification system to account for comorbidity of psychiatric disorder. Minkoff et al. indicate that the effort came about because the prevalence of comorbidity is so high that it is now considered the expectation rather than the exception.
Doing What Matters in Times of Stress
Substance use disorder (SUD) is a condition where someone struggles to control their use of alcohol, drugs, or other substances, even when it’s clearly causing problems in their life. Substance use disorders can be caused by multiple risk factors, including environmental influences, other mental health disorders, or childhood trauma and genetics 4. Leveraging a socioecological approach empowers leaders to champion prevention strategies that address health equity and amend the nation’s historically unjust practices, some of which persist today. With health equity in mind, the authors encourage US leaders to sharpen their attention toward macro-level solutions for prevention; these hold the greatest potential for sustainably improving health for all citizens across a broad set of health outcomes. Figure 1 illustrates the nested levels of factors considered in a socioecological framework, which have been highly simplified for the purpose of organizing the current argument. Macro-level factors, such as policies and practices, can have direct impacts on individuals’ health by subjecting them to stigma, trauma, and discrimination stemming from these broader influences.