Related Experiment Videos
Drug use among primary alcoholic veterans
J W Tsuang1, E Shapiro, T L Smith
1Department of Psychiatry, West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center, California.
The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse
|November 1, 1994
Summary
Alcohol-dependent men with a history of stimulant or opiate use showed higher drug relapse rates post-treatment. However, past drug use did not significantly impact alcohol relapse rates in this veteran population.
Area of Science:
- Addiction Medicine
- Psychiatry
- Public Health
Background:
- Co-occurring substance use is common in alcohol dependence.
- Limited understanding of how prior non-dependent drug use impacts treatment outcomes for alcohol dependence.
Purpose of the Study:
- Determine drug use prevalence among primary alcohol-dependent men.
- Evaluate the association between past drug use history and subsequent alcohol or drug relapse after treatment.
Main Methods:
- Recruited 630 primary alcoholic male veterans from an inpatient Alcohol and Drug Treatment Program.
- Categorized subjects into four groups based on lifetime drug use: abstainers, marijuana-only users, stimulant users (no opiates), and opiate users.
- Assessed relapse rates at a 3-month follow-up.
Main Results:
- Nearly two-thirds of participants reported a history of drug use.
- Alcoholic men with a history of stimulant or opiate use exhibited significantly higher rates of drug relapse.
- No significant differences in alcohol relapse rates were observed across the four drug use history groups.
Conclusions:
- Past stimulant or opiate use is a predictor of drug relapse in alcohol-dependent men.
- Treatment prognosis for alcohol relapse appears independent of prior drug use history in this cohort.