# Associations between mental health & substance use treatment and alcohol use progression and recovery among US women drinkers

## TL;DR

The study finds that mental health and substance use treatment is linked to better recovery from alcohol use problems among women in the US.

## Contribution

The novel contribution is identifying that treatment for mental health or substance use is associated with transitioning from moderate to no alcohol problems in women.

## Key findings

- Women from Black, Hispanic, or other races were less likely to receive mental health or substance use treatment compared to White women.
- Receiving mental health or substance use treatment was associated with transitioning from moderate alcohol problems to no problems over time.
- Women with severe alcohol problems did not show similar remission despite treatment, suggesting a need for further research.

## Abstract

Alcohol use has profound public health impact on women; however, modifiable factors that may influence alcohol use progression/recovery, including health service utilization, are understudied in women.

To investigate the association between mental health (MH) and substance use (SU) treatment with alcohol use progression and recovery among women who currently use alcohol or have in the past.

This study is a secondary data analysis of prospective data from waves 1 (2001–2002) and 2 (2004–2005) of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC; a US-nationally representative sample of adults). The analytic sample was limited to women who reported past or current alcohol use at wave 1 (N = 15,515). Latent transition analysis (LTA) examined whether receiving SU/MH treatment in the year prior to wave 1 was associated with transitioning between three empirically-derived stages of alcohol involvement (no, moderate, and severe problems classes), between Waves 1 and 2 adjusting for possible confounders using propensity score weight.

Compared to White female drinkers, female drinkers who were from Black, Hispanic, or other races were less likely to receive SU/MH treatment (p-values ≤. 001). SU/MH treatment in the year prior to wave 1 was associated with transitioning from the moderate problems class to the no problems class between Waves 1 and 2 (p-value = .04).

Receipt of SU or MH treatment among women, was associated with a higher likelihood of remission from moderate alcohol use problems to no problems over time. Future research, including investigation into treatment characteristics (e.g., frequency, duration, type) should further explore why women initially experiencing severe alcohol use problems did not experience similar remission.