Health issues in the Arab American community. Arab Americans in publicly financed substance abuse treatment.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the characteristics of Arab Americans receiving treatment and to compare them with individuals of other ethnic groups. METHODS: We used admission data (FY2005) for Michigan publicly funded substance abuse treatment (N=69,989). Arab American ethnicity (n=224 or 0.3% of admissions) was defined by codes for race, ethnicities or primary language of Arabic (n=21). Other ethnicities examined were American Indian, Hispanic, African American, and White. RESULTS: The number of Arab American admissions was lower than expected for the population (RR=0.25). Admissions were concentrated (81%) in metropolitan Detroit as is the community (82%, RR=.99), unlike other ethnicities. Primary drugs of abuse were alcohol (34.8%), marijuana (17.9%), heroin (17.4%) and crack cocaine (15.6%). Mean duration of use (11.2 yrs) was significantly lower than for other ethnicities. Arab American admissions were predominately male (76.3%), unemployed (62.1%) and with criminal justice involvement (58%), similar to other ethnicities. DISCUSSION: Using administrative database has its limits and may misclassify ethnicities. Based upon the available data, it appears that Arab Americans accounted for a small percentage of admissions to publicly funded substance abuse treatment in Michigan. Most of the admissions listed English as the primary language, raising concern that language may be a barrier to entry. Admission profiles were generally similar across ethnicities, except that Arab Americans were entering treatment after shorter duration of use. These data can inform development of treatment programs and outreach efforts.

Treatment at the front end of the criminal justice continuum: the association between arrest and admission into specialty substance abuse treatment.

BACKGROUND: To reduce criminal recidivism and drug use, it has been proposed that the substance abuse treatment delivery system cut across different components of the criminal justice continuum. Arrest, at the front end of this continuum, may represent a critical moment to motivate people with substance use disorders (SUD) to seek treatment but is often over looked as an intervention point. We used data from the 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) to compare treatment need and recent treatment admission for participants with no criminal justice (CJ) involvement in the past year, past-year arrest, and CJ supervision (i.e., probation or parole status). RESULTS: Of those arrested, 44.8% met criteria for an SUD. However, only 14% of those arrested with an SUD received treatment in the year of their arrest. In multivariate modelling, arrest was an independent predictor of treatment admission (odds ratio (OR) = 8.74) similar in magnitude to meeting criteria for an SUD (OR = 8.22). Those further along the continuum--under supervision--were most likely to receive treatment (OR = 22.62). CONCLUSION: Arrest involves the largest number of individuals entering the criminal justice system. The NSDUH suggests that nearly 6 million individuals in the US experience an arrest annually and that nearly half meet criteria for an SUD. Although arrest involves the largest number of individuals entering the criminal justice system, it is also the most fleeting point as individuals can move in and out rather quickly. Minimally, arrest imposes contact between the individual and a law enforcement person and can be an opportunity for early intervention strategies such as pre-arraignment diversion into treatment or brief intervention strategies. Using brief intervention at this early point in the continuum may motivate a greater number of individuals to seek treatment or decrease drug and alcohol use. Training and procedural shifts at this point of contact could have important policy implications in reducing the number of subsequent arrests or preventing individuals moving further along the criminal justice continuum, as well as decreasing the fiscal and resource burdens associated with criminal justice processing and confinement.

Characteristics of U.S. substance abuse treatment facilities adopting buprenorphine in its initial stage of availability.

This study examined the adoption of buprenorphine for the treatment of opiate dependence among U.S. substance abuse treatment facilities and their characteristics at the time of the initial availability of the medication. Data come from a 2003 national survey of all substance abuse treatment facilities in the U.S. Out of our sample of 13,060 facilities, 5.5% of facilities reported they offered buprenorphine. Not unexpectedly, the prevalence was higher in certified opioid treatment programs (11.3%) compared to other facilities (4.6%). For opioid treatment programs, offering Naltrexone (OR=8.34, 95% CI=5.53, 12.58) and offering medically supervised withdrawal (OR=2.76, 95% CI=1.38, 5.52) were independent and robust predictors of offering buprenorphine. These same variables were independent predictors for the non-opioid treatment programs as well (Naltrexone, OR=14.32, 95% CI=7.85, 26.10; and medically supervised withdrawal services, OR=4.42, 95% CI=3.01, 6.49). Our results suggest that the adoption of buprenorphine soon after the Food and Drug Administration approved its use for treatment of opioid dependence and the shipping of the medication commenced was associated with facilities already offering pharmacotherapies such as Naltrexone and medically assisted withdrawal. These findings provide baseline data to track the adoption of buprenorphine by substance abuse treatment programs in future years.