Individuals with SAMCs benefit from integrated medical and substance abuse treatment, and such an approach can be cost-effective. These findings are relevant given the high prevalence and cost of medical conditions among substance abuse patients, new developments in medications for addiction, and recent legislation on parity of substance abuse with other medical benefits.

Our findings point to the importance of examining comorbid medical conditions and substance abuse in both primary and specialty care. Our findings regarding pain-related diagnoses among patients dependent on narcotic analgesics highlight the need for linkages between primary care and substance abuse treatment. Moreover, optimal treatment of many common medical disorders may require identification, intervention, and treatment of an underlying substance abuse disorder.

Alcohol consumption is a complex trait determined by both genetic and environmental factors, and is correlated with the risk of alcohol use disorders. While a small number of genetic loci have been reported to be associated with variation in alcohol consumption, genetic factors are estimated to explain about half of the variance in alcohol consumption, suggesting that additional loci remain to be discovered. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of alcohol consumption in the large Genetic Epidemiology Research in Adult Health and Aging (GERA) cohort, in four race/ethnicity groups: non-Hispanic Whites, Hispanic/Latinos, East Asians, and African Americans. We examined two statistically independent phenotypes reflecting subjects’ alcohol consumption during the past year, based on self-reported information: any alcohol intake (drinker/non-drinker status), and the regular quantity of drinks consumed per week (drinks/week) among drinkers. We assessed these two alcohol consumption phenotypes in each race/ethnicity group, and in a combined trans-ethnic meta-analysis comprising a total of 86 627 individuals. We observed the strongest association between the previously-reported single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs671 in ALDH2 and alcohol drinker status (OR=0.40, p=2.28×10−72) in East Asians, and also an effect on drinks/week (beta=−0.17, p=5.42×10−4) in the same group. We also observed a genome-wide significant association in non-Hispanic Whites between the previously-reported SNP rs1229984 in ADH1B and both alcohol consumption phenotypes (OR=0.79, p=2.47×10−20 for drinker status and beta=−0.19, p=1.91×10−35 for drinks/week), which replicated in Hispanic/Latinos (OR=0.72, p=4.35×10−7 and beta=−0.21, p=2.58×10−6, respectively). While prior studies reported effects of ADH1B and ALDH2 on lifetime measures, such as risk of alcohol dependence, our study adds further evidence of the effect of the same genes on a cross-sectional measure of average drinking. Our trans-ethnic meta-analysis confirmed recent findings implicating the KLB and GCKR loci in alcohol consumption, with strongest associations observed for rs7686419 (beta=−0.04, p=3.41×10−10 for drinks/week and OR=0.96, p=4.08×10−5 for drinker status), and rs4665985 (beta = 0.04, p=2.26×10−8 for drinks/week and OR=1.04, p=5.00×10−4 for drinker status), respectively. Finally, we also obtained confirmatory results extending previous findings implicating AUTS2, SGOL1, and SERPINC1 genes in alcohol consumption traits in non-Hispanic whites.

Aims This study compared 5-year treatment outcomes of older adults to those of middle-aged and younger adults in a large managed care chemical dependency program. We examined age group differences in individual, treatment and extra-treatment factors, which may influence long-term outcome. Design Seventy-seven per cent of original study participants completed a telephone interview 5 years after out-patient chemical dependency treatment at Kaiser Permanente. This sample (N = 925) included 65 patients aged 55-77, 296 patients aged 40-54 and 564 patients aged 18-39 (age at baseline). Measurements Measures at follow-up included alcohol and drug use, Addiction Severity Index (ASI), Alcoholics Anonymous Affiliation Scale, social resource and self-reported health questions. Mortality data were obtained from contact with family members of patients as well as automated health plan records. Findings Older adults were less likely to be drug-dependent at baseline than younger and middle-aged adults, and had longer retention in treatment than younger adults. At 5 years, older adults were less likely than younger adults to have close family or friends who encouraged alcohol or drug use. Fifty-two per cent of older adults reported total abstinence from alcohol and drugs in the previous 30 days versus 40% of younger adults. Older women had higher 30-day abstinence than older men or younger women. Among participants dependent only on alcohol, there were no significant age differences in 30-day abstinence. In logistic regression analysis, age group was not significant. Variables associated with greater age that independently predicted 30-day abstinence in the logistic regression model included longer retention in treatment and having no close family or friends who encouraged alcohol or drug use at 5 years; female gender was also significant. Conclusions Results indicate that older adults have favorable long-term outcome following treatment relative to younger adults, but these differences may be accounted for by variables associated with age such as type of substance dependence, treatment retention, social networks and gender. Age differences in these characteristics inform intervention strategies to support long-term recovery of older adults and provide direction for investigation of how age affects outcome.