Alcohol and Cannabis Use Disorder Diagnoses in Mental Health Treatment 2013 to 2022: A Descriptive Epidemiological...

Alcohol and cannabis use disorders are among the most prevalent substance use disorders in the United States. Both conditions are associated with mental health disorders. Most individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders who receive treatment encounter mental health treatment services.

This study examined national mental health treatment facility data over 10 years to describe persons with an alcohol or cannabis use disorder.

Annual cross-sectional data were used. Using a descriptive epidemiological approach, this study captured the "who," "when," and "where" regarding individuals with alcohol or cannabis use disorders receiving mental health treatment.

Ten years of annual de-identified publicly available administrative data from the Mental Health Client-Level Data, a nationwide dataset based in the United States, were merged from 2013 to 2022. Sample selection criteria included having either an alcohol or cannabis use disorder diagnosis. These 2 samples were examined separately. Examined variables include year, region, treatment setting, age, sex, race and ethnicity, and co-occurring mental health disorder diagnoses.

The analytic sample was N = 3 947 802 cases, approximately 6.4% of the merged dataset before sample selection. This includes n = 2 315 686 cases with an alcohol use disorder and n = 1 632 116 cases with a cannabis use disorder. Both samples were majority male at 60%. Numerically, the year with the most alcohol use disorder cases in the dataset was 2020 (n = 278 550), and the year 2018 had the most cannabis use disorder cases in the dataset (n = 199 744). Depressive disorders were the most common co-occurring mental health disorder among the alcohol use disorder sample (n = 821 659; 35.5%) and the cannabis use disorder sample (n = 494 113; 30.3%).

This descriptive study highlights the characteristics of individuals with alcohol and cannabis use disorders who received services from mental health treatment facilities during a 10-year period. Findings from this study provide a greater understanding of this population.