Contact Media Services: (240) 276-2130
Date: 1/23/2007
Date: 1/23/2007
Media Contact: SAMHSA Press
Telephone: 240-276-2130
New Study Shows American Indians and Alaska Natives Continue to Have Higher Rates of Alcohol Use and Illicit Drug Use Disorders Than Other Racial Groups
American Indians and Alaska Natives ages 12 or older were less likely to have used alcohol in the past year than were members of other racial groups, but they were more likely than members of other racial groups to have a past-year alcohol use disorder and to have a past-year illicit drug use disorder, according to new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Substance Use and Substance Disorders among American Indians and Alaska Natives shows that 60.8 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives and 65.8 percent of other racial groups used alcohol in the past year, that 10.7 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives reported having a past-year alcohol use disorder compared with 7.6 percent of other racial groups and that 5.0 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives had a past-year illicit drug use disorder compared with 2.9 percent of other racial groups.
American Indians and Alaska Natives also had higher rates than members of other racial groups for past-year marijuana use (13.5 percent vs. 10.6 percent), cocaine use (3.5 percent vs. 2.4 percent), and disorders involving hallucinogen use (2.7 percent vs. 1.7 percent). However, rates of past-year heroin use and past-year nonmedical use of pain relievers, tranquilizers, and sedatives were similar for American Indians and Alaska Natives and members of other racial groups. All findings are annual averages based on combined 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) data.
“Tragically, American Indians and Alaska Natives continue to have higher rates of substance use disorders than other racial groups within the United States,” says Terry L. Cline, Ph.D., SAMHSA Administrator.
“While improvements in some areas of substance use have been realized, such as decreased alcohol use in the past year, we intend to keep working to ensure that culturally appropriate substance abuse treatment and native healing approaches can bring help where it is so badly needed.”
For this report, American Indians and Alaska Natives include all respondents who reported this race, including those who reported it in addition to another race or ethnicity. This categorization varies from SAMHSA’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health in which persons who identify themselves as Hispanic and American Indian or Alaska Native are categorized as Hispanic, and persons who identify themselves as American Indian or Alaska Native and another race (e.g., White, Black or African American, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, or other) are categorized as “two or more races.”
Illicit drugs refer to marijuana/hashish, cocaine (including crack), inhalants, hallucinogens, heroin, or prescription-type drugs used nonmedically. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), on which this report is based, defines illicit drug or alcohol dependence or abuse using criteria specified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). Substance dependence or abuse includes such symptoms as withdrawal, tolerance, use in dangerous situations, trouble with the law, and interference in major obligations at work, school, or home during the past year.
The complete report is available online at http://oas.samhsa.gov.
The NSDUH Report is published periodically by the Office of Applied Studies. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) is an annual survey sponsored by SAMHSA. The survey collects data by administering questionnaires to a representative sample of the population through face-to-face interviews at their place of residence.
