Physician Interactions Associated With Increased Reception of Substance Use Disorder Treatment

Objectives According to the 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), only 10% of the estimated 40 million individuals with substance use disorder (SUD) sought treatment. In this analysis, we aimed to examine the factors and characteristics of individuals who had received SUD treatment to gain a better understanding of why some patients attend treatment while the majority do not. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of publicly available data from the 2020 NSDUH, accessed through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 27.0 (Released 2020; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, United States). We limited our analysis to individuals who self-reported having an alcohol or illicit drug use disorder in the preceding year. We examined the relationship between physician interactions and reception of SUD treatment at any facility in the preceding year (2019-2020) or in their lifetime using the chi-squared analysis and odds ratios (OR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) and 0.05 alpha level. Results Traditional physician inquiries regarding the amount and frequency of substance use were not significantly associated with treatment receipt (p>0.05). However, more personalized interactions were significantly associated with treatment receipt (p<0.05). For example, individuals who reported an interaction where a physician asked if they had any drinking problems had a 2.52-fold increase in the odds of treatment receipt in 2020 (OR: 2.52; 95% CI: 3.7-1.7; p<0.001), and individuals who reported an interaction where a doctor advised them to cut down on drinking were 3.86 times more likely to receive treatment in 2020 (OR: 3.86; 95% CI: 5.85-2.55; p<0.001). Moreover, individuals who reported an interaction with a doctor where they were offered information on alcohol treatment had a fourfold increase in treatment receipt in 2020 (OR: 4.84; 95% CI: 7.54-3.1; p<0.001) and a threefold increase over a lifetime (OR: 3.20; 95% CI: 4.62-2.22; p<0.001); however, only 9.6% of individuals reported such an interaction. Conclusions Personalized and informative discussions offering information on SUD treatment options and cessation strategies were associated with higher rates of treatment reception compared to traditional inquiries about the amount and frequency of substance use.