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Mental disorders as risk factors for later substance dependence: estimates of optimal prevention and treatment benefits

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2008

M. D. Glantz ,
J. C. Anthony ,
P. A. Berglund ,
L. Degenhardt ,
L. Dierker ,
A. Kalaydjian ,
K. R. Merikangas ,
A. M. Ruscio ,
J. Swendsen  and
R. C. Kessler
M. D. Glantz*
Affiliation:
Division of Epidemiology, Services and Prevention Research, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
J. C. Anthony
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Michigan State University School of Medicine, East Lansing, MI, USA
P. A. Berglund
Affiliation:
Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
L. Degenhardt
Affiliation:
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Randwick, Australia
L. Dierker
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, USA
A. Kalaydjian
Affiliation:
National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
K. R. Merikangas
Affiliation:
National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
A. M. Ruscio
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
J. Swendsen
Affiliation:
National Scientific Research Center (CNRS 5231), Bordeaux, France
R. C. Kessler
Affiliation:
Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
*
*Address for correspondence: Dr M. D. Glantz, 6001 Executive Boulevard, Suite 5185, MSC 9589 Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. (Email: mglantz@nida.nih.gov)
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Abstract

Background

Although mental disorders have been shown to predict subsequent substance disorders, it is not known whether substance disorders could be cost-effectively prevented by large-scale interventions aimed at prior mental disorders. Although experimental intervention is the only way to resolve this uncertainty, a logically prior question is whether the associations of mental disorders with subsequent substance disorders are strong enough to justify mounting such an intervention. We investigated this question in this study using simulations to estimate the number of substance disorders that might be prevented under several hypothetical intervention scenarios focused on mental disorders.

Method

Data came from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R), a nationally representative US household survey that retrospectively assessed lifetime history and age of onset of DSM-IV mental and substance disorders. Survival analysis using retrospective age-of-onset reports was used to estimate associations of mental disorders with subsequent substance dependence. Simulations based on the models estimated effect sizes in several hypothetical intervention scenarios.

Results

Although successful intervention aimed at mental disorders might prevent some proportion of substance dependence, the number of cases of mental disorder that would have to be treated to prevent a single case of substance dependence is estimated to be so high that this would not be a cost-effective way to prevent substance dependence (in the range 76–177 for anxiety-mood disorders and 40–47 for externalizing disorders).

Conclusions

Treatment of prior mental disorders would not be a cost-effective way to prevent substance dependence. However, prevention of substance dependence might be considered an important secondary outcome of interventions for early-onset mental disorders.

Keywords

Mental disorderspreventionsubstance dependencetreatment
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 39 , Issue 8 , August 2009 , pp. 1365 - 1377
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press This is the work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States.

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