The Impact of Substance Use Disorders on Treatment Engagement Among Justice-Involved Veterans With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Veterans involved with the criminal justice system represent a particularly vulnerable population who experience high rates of both posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorders (SUD). This study sought to investigate whether having co-occurring SUD is a barrier to PTSD treatment....

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological services 2019-11, Vol.16 (4), p.564-571
Main Authors: Stimmel, Matthew A., Rosenthal, Joel, Blue-Howells, Jessica, Clark, Sean, Harris, Alex H. S., Rubinsky, Anna D., Bowe, Thomas, Finlay, Andrea K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Comorbidity
Criminal Justice
Criminal justice system
Criminal Law - statistics & numerical data
Female
Human
Humans
Male
Medical diagnosis
Medical treatment
Middle Aged
Military hospitals
Military Veterans
Outpatient
Outreach programs
Outreach services
Patient Acceptance of Health Care - statistics & numerical data
Post traumatic stress disorder
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Retrospective Studies
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - epidemiology
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - therapy
Substance Use Disorder
Substance-Related Disorders - epidemiology
Treatment Barriers
Treatment Compliance
United States - epidemiology
United States Department of Veterans Affairs - statistics & numerical data
Veterans
Veterans - statistics & numerical data
Young Adult
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Veterans involved with the criminal justice system represent a particularly vulnerable population who experience high rates of both posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorders (SUD). This study sought to investigate whether having co-occurring SUD is a barrier to PTSD treatment. This is a retrospective observational study of a national sample of justice-involved veterans served by the Veterans Health Administration Veterans Justice Outreach program who had a diagnosis of PTSD (N = 27,857). Mixed effects logistic regression models with a random effect for facility (N = 141 medical centers) were utilized to estimate the odds of receiving each type of PTSD treatment as a function of having a SUD diagnosis. Results indicate that a majority of veterans with PTSD served by the Veterans Justice Outreach program have an SUD diagnosis (73%), and having a co-occurring SUD was associated with higher odds of receiving PTSD treatment, after adjusting for demographic differences. Although not without limitations, these results suggest that among justice-involved veterans enrolled in the Veterans Health Administration with PTSD, having an SUD comorbidity is not a barrier to PTSD treatment and may in fact facilitate access to PTSD treatment.
ISSN:1541-1559
1939-148X
DOI:10.1037/ser0000238