Heterogeneity of Mental Health Service Utilization & High Mental Health Service Use among Women Eight Years After Initiating Substance Use Disorder Treatment

Objective

To determine mental health service utilization patterns among women treated for substance use disorders (SUD) and identify factors associated with patterns of high mental health service use.

Methods

Data were provided by 4,447 women treated for SUD in California during 2000–2002 for whom mental health services utilization records were acquired. A latent class model was fitted to women’s high use of services (≥6 services/year over 8 years). Multinomial logistic regression was used to identify predisposing, enabling, and need factors associated with utilization patterns.

Results

In 8 years after initiating SUD treatment, 50% of women utilized mental health services. High use probability was consistently low for most women (76.9%); for others, however, it decreased immediately following SUD treatment and then increased over time (9.3%), increased immediately following SUD treatment and then decreased (8.7%), or remained consistently high (5.1%). Consistently high services use was negatively associated with marriage and employment and positively associated with older age, homelessness, public assistance, outpatient SUD treatment, longer SUD treatment retention, treatment desire, and co-occurring disorder diagnosis. Up to 29% of women with co-occurring mental health disorders at SUD treatment entry did not receive any mental health treatment in the subsequent 8 years.

Conclusions

Mental health services utilization patterns among women treated for SUD are hetereogeneous and dynamic. Understanding factors related to women’s utilization patterns may aid efforts to optimize care and ensure appropriate use of mental health services.

Below:  Use of mental health services among women treated for substance use disorders (SUD) by type of disorder (n=4,447)

Below:   Patterns of high mental health services utilization 8 years after treatment for substance use disorders (SUD)

Full article at:  http://goo.gl/oIzLwP

By:  Elizabeth Evans, M.A.,a,* Howard Padwa, Ph.D.,a Libo Li, Ph.D.,a Veronique Lin,a and Yih-Ing Hser, Ph.D.a

^aUCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, 11075 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 200 Los Angeles, CA 90025

^*Corresponding author: Elizabeth Evans, M.A., UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, 11075 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 200, Los Angeles, CA 90025 Tel: (310) 267-5315, Email: ude.alcu@snaveal

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