Hospitalization: An Underutilized Touchpoint for Treating Substance Use Disorder

Addiction Policy Forum
3 minutes ago
2 min read

A study led by researchers at the University of Colorado Department of Medicine found that nearly one in 10 U.S. adults with a substance use disorder (SUD) were hospitalized over a one-year period. Despite the frequency of these hospitalizations, most individuals with SUD did not receive addiction treatment while hospitalized.

The research, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, used data from the 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The study identified 60 million U.S. adults who had at least one form of SUD, including alcohol, opioid, stimulant, cannabis, and tobacco use disorders. Of those, approximately 5.8 million (9.7%) reported being hospitalized in the past year.

Dr. Eden Bernstein, assistant professor in the CU Division of Hospital Medicine and the study’s lead author, noted: “These findings highlight that this is a missed opportunity to help millions of people each year.” Dr. Bernstein also says hospital-based SUD programs “are growing around the country to address this. But we also know from prior work that most patients across the country who are hospitalized don’t receive evidence-based substance use and addiction treatment. Some hospitals have addiction treatment services that provide a lot of resources for these patients, but other hospitals don’t.”

Key Findings

Hospitalized individuals with SUDs were more likely to be older and to have additional medical and psychiatric conditions compared to their non-hospitalized peers.
The proportion of hospitalizations ranged from 7.3% to 23.6% among those with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and opioid use disorder (OUD), respectively.
Hospitalized adults with AUD, cannabis use disorder, and tobacco use disorder were also more likely to have serious mental illness.
Hospitalized individuals were more likely to be insured, with the lowest hospitalization rates observed among uninsured individuals with OUD and StUD.

The Article:

Bernstein EY, Calcaterra SL, Chopra V, Edelman EJ, Kruse GR. Prevalence of hospitalizations among a national sample of U.S. adults with substance use disorders. Ann Intern Med. Published online 2024. doi:10.7326/ANNALS-24-03385