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Review
. 2009 Oct;11(5):353-9.
doi: 10.1007/s11920-009-0053-6.

Substance abuse in the United States: findings from recent epidemiologic studies

Jeffrey D Schulden  1 , Yonette F Thomas, Wilson M Compton
Affiliations
Review

Substance abuse in the United States: findings from recent epidemiologic studies

Jeffrey D Schulden et al. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2009 Oct.

Abstract

Recent research on the epidemiology of substance use disorders (SUDs) has provided important insights into these conditions and their impact on public health. In the United States, annual surveys of drug use in household and school populations serve as one of the primary sources of information about the distribution of illicit drug use. This research has demonstrated continued shifts in trends in illicit drug use in the United States and called attention to rising rates of prescription drug misuse and abuse. Findings have also continued to highlight the substantial comorbidity of SUDs with other psychiatric disorders and with the ongoing HIV epidemic. Building on these foundations, future challenges for research in substance abuse epidemiology will include using novel methodologic approaches to further unravel the complex interrelationships that link individual vulnerabilities for SUDs, including genetic factors, with social and environmental risk factors.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure

No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Trends in lifetime and annual illicit drug use among eighth, 10th, and 12th graders. A, Percentage who used any illicit drug in their lifetime. B, Percentage who used any illicit drug during the previous 12 months. C, Percentage who used any illicit drug other than marijuana in their lifetime. D, Percentage who used any illicit drug other than marijuana during the previous 12 months. Note that beginning in 2001, revised sets of questions on other hallucinogen and tranquilizer use were introduced. Thus, data for “any illicit drug other than marijuana” were affected by these changes. (From Johnston et al. [3•]; with permission.)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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