This study identifies longitudinal psychiatric trajectories of 934 adult individuals entering chemical dependency treatment in a private, managed care health plan and examines the relationship of these trajectories with substance use (SU) outcomes. The authors apply a group-based modeling approach to identify trajectory groups based on repeated measures of psychiatric severity for 9 years and identify four distinct groups. Results of multivariate logistic generalized estimating equation models find an association between psychiatric trajectories and long-term SU. Older cohorts and life course measures of marital status and employment status as individuals changed over time are related to drug and some alcohol outcomes.

Objectives

How best to provide ongoing services to patients with substance use disorders to sustain long-term recovery is a significant clinical and policy question that has not been adequately addressed. Analyzing nine years of prospective data for 991 adults who entered substance abuse treatment in a private, nonprofit managed care health plan, this study aimed to examine the components of a continuing care model (primary care, specialty substance abuse treatment, and psychiatric services) and their combined effect on outcomes over nine years after treatment entry.

Methods

In a longitudinal observational study, follow-up measures included self-reported alcohol and drug use, Addiction Severity Index scores, and service utilization data extracted from the health plan databases. Remission, defined as abstinence or non-problematic use, was the outcome measure.

Results

A mixed-effects logistic random intercept model controlling for time and other covariates found that yearly primary care, and specialty care based on need as measured at the prior time point, were positively associated with remission over time. Persons receiving continuing care (defined as having yearly primary care and specialty substance abuse treatment and psychiatric services when needed) had twice the odds of achieving remission at follow-ups (p<.001) as those without.

Conclusions

Continuing care that included both primary care and specialty care management to support ongoing monitoring, self-care, and treatment as needed was important for long-term recovery of patients with substance use disorders.

Aims

Twelve-step affiliation among adolescents is little understood. We examined twelve-step affiliation and its association with substance use outcomes 3 years post-treatment intake among adolescents seeking chemical dependency (CD) treatment in a private, managed care health plan. We also examined the effects of social support and religious service attendance on the relationship.

Design

We analyzed data for 357 adolescents, aged 13-18, who entered treatment at four Kaiser Permanente Northern California CD Programs between March 2000 and May 2002 and completed both baseline and 3-year follow-up interviews.

Measures

Measures at follow-up included alcohol and drug use, twelve-step affiliation, social support and frequency of religious service attendance.

Findings

At 3 years, 68 adolescents (19%) reported attending any twelve-step meetings, and 49 (14%) reported involvement in at least one of seven twelve-step activities, in the prior 6 months. Multivariate logistic regression analyses indicated that after controlling individual and treatment factors, twelve-step attendance at 1 year was marginally significant, while twelve-step attendance at 3 years was associated with both alcohol and drug abstinence at 3 years [odds ratio (OR) 2.58, P<0.05 and OR 2.53, P<0.05, respectively]. Similarly, twelve-step activity involvement was significantly associated with 30-day alcohol and drug abstinence. There are possible mediating effects of social support and religious service attendance on the relationship between post-treatment twelve-step affiliation and 3-year outcomes.

Conclusions

The findings suggest the importance of twelve-step affiliation in maintaining long-term recovery, and help understand the mechanism through which it works among adolescents.

Background

Adolescents who attend 12-step groups following alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment are more likely to remain abstinent and to avoid relapse post-treatment. We examined whether 12-step attendance is also associated with a corresponding reduction in health care use and costs.

Methods

We used difference-in-difference analysis to compare changes in seven-year follow-up health care use and costs by changes in 12-step participation. Four Kaiser Permanente Northern California AOD treatment programs enrolled 403 adolescents, 13 to 18-years old, into a longitudinal cohort study upon AOD treatment entry. Participants self-reported 12-step meeting attendance at six-month, one-year, three-year, and five-year follow-up. Outcomes included counts of hospital inpatient days, emergency room (ER) visits, primary care visits, psychiatric visits, AOD treatment costs and total medical care costs.

Results

Each additional 12-step meeting attended was associated with an incremental medical cost reduction of 4.7% during seven-year follow-up. The medical cost offset was largely due to reductions in hospital inpatient days, psychiatric visits, and AOD treatment costs. We estimate total medical use cost savings at $145 per year (in 2010 U.S. dollars) per additional 12-step meeting attended.

Conclusions

The findings suggest that 12-step participation conveys medical cost offsets for youth who undergo AOD treatment. Reduced costs may be related to improved AOD outcomes due to 12-step participation, improved general health due to changes in social network following 12-step participation, or better compliance to both AOD treatment and 12-step meetings.

Background

This study examined alcohol use patterns among men and women with depression seeking outpatient psychiatric treatment, including factors associated with recent heavy episodic drinking and motivation to reduce alcohol consumption.

Methods

The sample consisted of 1183 patients ages 18 and over who completed a self-administered, computerized intake questionnaire and who scored ≥ 10 on the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Additional measures included current and past alcohol questions based on the Addiction Severity Index, heavy episodic drinking (≥ 5 drinks on one or more occasions in the past year), alcohol-related problems on the Short Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (SMAST), and motivation to reduce drinking using the Stages of Change Readiness and Treatment Eagerness Scale (SOCRATES).

Results

Among those who consumed any alcohol in the past year (73.9% of the sample), heavy episodic drinking in the past year was reported by 47.5% of men and 32.5% of women. In logistic regression, prior-year heavy episodic drinking was associated with younger age (p=.011), male gender (p=.001) and cigarette smoking (p=.002). Among patients reporting heavy episodic drinking, motivation to reduce alcohol consumption was associated with older age (p=.008), greater usual quantity of alcohol consumed (p<.001), and higher SMAST score (p<.001).

Conclusions

In contrast to prior clinical studies, we examined sub-diagnostic alcohol use and related problems among psychiatric outpatients with depression. Patients reporting greater drinking quantities and alcohol-related problems also express more motivation to reduce drinking, providing intervention opportunities for mental health providers that should not be overlooked.

This study examined the association between stopping smoking at 1 year after substance use treatment intake and long-term substance use outcomes. Nine years of prospective data from 1,185 adults (39% female) in substance use treatment at a private health care setting were analyzed by multivariate logistic generalized estimating equation models. At 1 year, 14.1% of 716 participants who smoked cigarettes at intake reported stopping smoking, and 10.7% of the 469 non-smokers at intake reported smoking. After adjusting for sociodemographics, substance use severity and diagnosis at intake, length of stay in treatment, and substance use status at 1 year, those who stopped smoking at 1 year were more likely to be past-year abstinent from drugs, or in past-year remission of drugs and alcohol combined, at follow-ups than those who continued to smoke (OR = 2.4, 95% CI: 1.2 – 4.7 and OR = 1.6, 95% CI: 1.1 – 2.4, respectively). Stopping smoking at 1 year also predicted past-year alcohol abstinence through 9 years after intake among those with drug-only dependence (OR = 2.4, 95% CI: 1.2 – 4.5). We found no association between past-year alcohol abstinence and change in smoking status at 1 year for those with alcohol dependence or other substance use diagnoses when controlling for alcohol use status at 1 year. Stopping smoking during the first year after substance use treatment intake predicted better long-term substance use outcomes through 9 years after intake. Findings support promoting smoking cessation among smoking clients in substance use treatment.

AIMS

Increased access to health care, including addiction treatment, has long been a goal of health reform in the U.S. An unanswered question is whether reform will change the way people get to addiction treatment; when treatment is easily accessible, do individuals self-refer, or do they still enter treatment via ultimatums, and if so, from which sources? To begin examining this, we used a single case study of a U.S. health plan that provides access similar to that called for in health reform.

METHOD

Using a case study method of data from studies conducted in a large, private non-profit, integrated managed care health plan which includes addiction services, we examined the prevalence and source of ultimatums to enter treatment, and the characteristics of those receiving them. The plan is highly representative of changes to U.S. health care and other countries due to health reform.

RESULTS

Many individuals entering addiction treatment had received an ultimatum stemming from employment, legal, medical, and family sources. Having more employment problems, an occupation with public safety concerns, being older, male, and ethnicity predicted an employment ultimatum. Higher legal problem severity predicted a legal ultimatum. More men (and younger people) had family ultimatums, and more women (and older people) had medical ultimatums. Being younger, male, married, having higher employment and family problem severity, and being drug or combined drug/alcohol dependent rather than dependent on alcohol-only predicted an ultimatum from one’s family. On the whole, an ultimatum from one source was not related to having one from another source. Those most likely to receive ultimatums from multiple sources were women, those separated/divorced, and those having higher psychiatric and legal problem severity.

CONCLUSIONS

Even in an insured population with good access to addiction treatment, individuals often receive ultimatums to enter treatment rather than being self-referred. Understanding the treatment entry process, and how it is affected by health care systems, could benefit from international and other comparative research.

Objective

This study examined the role of workplace mandates to chemical dependency treatment in treatment adherence, alcohol and drug abstinence, severity of employment problems, and severity of psychiatric problems.

Methods

The sample included 448 employed members of a private, nonprofit U.S. managed care health plan who entered chemical dependency treatment with a workplace mandate (N=75) or without one (N=373); 405 of these individuals were followed up at one year (N=70 and N=335, respectively), and 362 participated in a five-year follow up (N=60 and N=302, respectively). Propensity scores predicting receipt of a workplace mandate were calculated. Logistic regression and ordinary least-squares regression were used to predict length of stay in chemical dependency treatment, alcohol and drug abstinence, and psychiatric and employment problem severity at one and five years.

Results

Overall, participants with a workplace mandate had one- and five-year outcomes similar to those without such a mandate. Having a workplace mandate also predicted longer treatment stays and improvement in employment problems. When other factors related to outcomes were controlled for, having a workplace mandate predicted abstinence at one year, with length of stay as a mediating variable.

Conclusions

Workplace mandates can be an effective mechanism for improving work performance and other outcomes. Study participants who had a workplace mandate were more likely than those who did not have a workplace mandate to be abstinent at follow-up, and they did as well in treatment, both short and long term. Pressure from the workplace likely gets people to treatment earlier and provides incentives for treatment adherence.