Addiction Insights
Understanding Trends and Habits
Stages of Recovery: Understanding the Necessity of Treatment
High-Level Findings
- Those who have struggled with addiction themselves are likelier to agree that relapse is a natural part of the addiction recovery process than those who have a loved one who has struggled or the general population.
- All demographics of respondents agreed by majority that relapse is a natural part of the addiction recovery process.
- Level of Education completed was not an indicator of respondents’ attitudes toward whether relapse is a naturalpart of the addiction recovery process.
Drugs, Their Use and Influences on Perception
High-Level Findings
- Frequency of use for un-prescribed marijuana was the most controversial, with opinions differing between addiction status, regions, and age.
- Those who have struggled with an addiction are much likelier to also get their information about alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, meth, and hallucinogens from peers than those who have not struggled.
- Gender and Education Level were the only demographics for which there were no differences in opinion for problematic frequency of use for any substances.
The Relationship Between Unemployment & Relapse
High-Level Findings
- After surveying over 1,000 alumni across the country and who attended many different treatment centers, we found that there is almost a 30% unemployment rate among alumni.
- Found that there is a statistically significant relationship between the treatment effectiveness rating an alumnus gave the treatment center they attended and their employment status.
- Those who were employed, at least part-time, at the time of taking the survey had given their treatment center a higher rating of treatment effectiveness than those who were unemployed.
Impact of Addiction on Relationships
High-Level Findings
- Those who struggled with addiction and also had a family member who struggled, most often reported that family member being their father and the second highest reported family member also having struggled was a brother.
- There is a significance difference between the responses from those who struggled with addiction and also had a family member struggle and those who struggled with addiction but did not also have a family member who struggled.
Use of Prescription Stimulants by Young Adults
High-Level Findings
- When evaluating the prescription stimulant misuse rate among young adults in the U.S., we found that there were four regions that had above national average misuse rate, including the Middle Atlantic, East North Central, South Atlantic, and Pacific. These regions are also where most of the top colleges in the U.S are located.
Addiction: A Complex Disease Requiring a Multifaceted Treatment Approach
High-Level Findings
- GWAS and related molecular genetic approaches have identified variants and SNPs in genes for receptors, neurotransmitters, and other neuronal-specific proteins that may correlate with addictive behavior or a high risk for it.
- A companion solution to genomics for identifying areas within the brain that are involved in addiction and/or risk of addictive behavior, are the real time brain imaging employing several types of scanning technologies.
- Now, results from pharmacology research provide the foundation for the development of medicines to treat addictive behavior in addition to these treatment methods.
