Substance Use Disorder Research Briefs

2011

The Cost and Quality of VA Mental Health Services — 2011

The quality of mental health care delivered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is generally as good or better than care delivered by private health plans, although it falls short of the high standards set in VA guidelines.

2010

The Arkansas Tobacco Settlement Programs: The Impact of One State's Investment in the Health of its Residents — 2010

Summarizes results of RAND's evaluation of the progress and impact of Arkansas' antismoking and health programs established with its share of tobacco settlement funds.

Better understanding efforts to reduce the supply of illicit drugs — 2010

To better understand illegal drug markets and supply-reduction efforts in the European Union, data on purity-adjusted prices must be collected. Member states can learn more about supply reduction by changing how they report seizure data.

How Might Marijuana Legalization in California Affect Drug Trafficking Revenues and Violence in Mexico? — 2010

Discusses whether legalizing marijuana in California would reduce the revenues of Mexican drug trafficking organizations and related violence.

The Influence of Personal, Family, and School Factors on Early Adolescent Substance Use — 2010

This study of middle school students in Southern California found that racial and ethnic variations in substance use among young adolescents are influenced by individual, family and school factors.

2009

Assessing Parolees' Health Care Needs and Potential Access to Health Care Services in California — 2009

California parolees' health care, mental health care, and drug- and alcohol-treatment needs, as well as where parolees go when they return to counties, place significant demands on counties' safety-net resources and on their ability meet those needs.

The Costs of Methamphetamine Use: A National Estimate — 2009

The economic cost of methamphetamine use reached more than an estimated $23 billion in 2005, mostly from the intangible burden that addiction places on dependent users and their premature mortality and from crime and criminal justice costs.

2008

The Behavioral Health Care System Is Poised for Change — 2008

This fact sheet provides an overview of the Institute of Medicine's quality improvement framework for behavioral health care and highlights current quality improvement projects that incorporate the framework's recommendations.

Teens Who Work Are More Likely to Smoke — 2008

This research brief describes a study that found that working for pay in and around the 10th grade is associated with increased smoking among teens.

2007

Mental Health and Substance Abuse Issues Among People with HIV: Lessons from HCSUS — 2007

This research brief describes findings from HIV Costs and Services Utilization Study surveys on the prevalence of mental health and substance abuse problems for persons with HIV, access to appropriate care, and ability to adhere to treatment.

New Perspectives on Marijuana and Youth: Abstainers Are Not Maladjusted, but Lone Users Face Difficulties — 2007

This research brief describes evidence RAND researchers use to challenge findings from 1990 report on marijuana use and emotional and social adjustment in teens.

Using Outcomes to Assess Teen Substance-Use Treatment Programs -- How Feasible? — 2007

This study explored using outcome data to assess adolescent substance abuse treatment program performance. However, this approach may be problematic. A more promising approach may be to identify quality-of-care indicators for assessing performance.

Using the ''Getting to Outcomes™'' Approach to Help Communities Prevent Underage Drinking — 2007

This research brief is a summary of a longer guide that provides key accountability questions, worksheets, tools, and examples to help communities plan, implement, and evaluate their efforts to reduce and prevent underage drinking.

2006

Forging the Link Between Alcohol Advertising and Underage Drinking — 2006

This research brief shows that alcohol advertising appears to promote adolescent drinking and suggests that school drug prevention programs can blunt the impact of alcohol ads on youth.

Getting To Outcomes™: Improving Community-Based Substance-Use Prevention — 2006

This research brief summarizes research to create Getting To Outcomes (GTO), a science-based model and support tools to help local groups develop or improve substance-use-prevention programs.

Integrating Treatment for People with Co-Occurring Mental Health and Substance Abuse Disorders in Public Systems of Care — 2006

This fact sheet describes an analysis to review progress in, identify challenges for, and point to promising directions for future integrated financing arrangements and care of people with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders.

Project ALERT Plus May Leverage the Effect of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign — 2006

This fact sheet reports lowered use of marijuana among ninth graders exposed to anti-drug messages from the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign along with Project ALERT Plus, a drug prevention curriculum for middle school students.

2005

Assessing U.S. Drug Problems and Policy: A Synthesis of the Evidence to Date — 2005

The RAND Drug Policy Research Center has published an Occasional Paper offering a concise, accessible, objective view of where the United States has been, now stands, and might go in the future in its long "war on drugs." The authors assess the succe...

Reducing Sexual Risk Among Injection Drug Users — 2005

Multiple sexual partnerships, sex work, and unprotected intercourse are common among injection drug users (IDUs).

Stopping Violence Before It Starts: Identifying Early Predictors of Adolescent Violence — 2005

This research brief describes work documented in “Early Predictors of Adolescent Violence,” American Journal of Public Health.