Alcohol and Alcoholism Advance Access originally published online on October 7, 2006
Alcohol and Alcoholism 2006 41(6):632-635; doi:10.1093/alcalc/agl081
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EXAMINING TREATMENT USE AMONG ALCOHOL-DEPENDENT INDIVIDUALS FROM A POPULATION PERSPECTIVE
1 Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 2 University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada and 3 Research and Development Unit, City of Stockholm, Stockholm
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed at: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 33 Russell Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2S1, Canada; Tel.: +416 535 8501 (ext. 6701); Fax: +416 595 6899; E-mail: John_Cunningham{at}camh.net
(Received 13 June 2006; first review notified 5 July 2006; in revised form 28 July 2006; accepted 31 August 2006)
Aims: To assess the prevalence of treatment use in lifetime and past year alcohol dependent respondents. To establish the proportion of problem drinkers who use alcohol treatment that just go to one treatment versus attending multiple different types of treatment in the same year. To explore what treatments are most likely to form part of a multiple treatment package. Method: Analysis of the 20012002 National Epidemiologic Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions, a large (N = 43 039), representative survey of the non-institutionalized adult population of the USA. There were 4781 respondents who met criteria for a lifetime definition of alcohol dependence and 1484 respondents who met criteria for past year alcohol dependence. Results: Prevalence of lifetime use of alcohol treatment was 25% among those with a lifetime diagnosis of alcohol dependence. Prevalence of past year use of alcohol treatment was 12% among respondents with past year alcohol dependence. Only one-third of past year treatment users had accessed just one type of alcohol treatment. Conclusions: While treatment services are only used by the minority of people with alcohol dependence, those people who do access alcohol treatment are likely to use several different alcohol treatment services in the same year.