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Drug Treatment Admissions Dropped 24% in Pandemic’s First Year
As drug overdose death rates continued to soar, admissions to drug treatment programs dropped by 24% during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new research from RAND Corporation released on Thursday.
The study, which was published in JAMA Network Open, is the first national analysis to chart declines in treatment admissions during the pandemic.
Findings were based on a comparison of information for 2017 to 2019 and 2020 from the federal Treatment Episode Data Set, which provides admissions-level data for substance use disorder (SUD) treatment from state agencies as reported by facilities that receive state funds or block grants. Researchers looked at demographic differences, as well as overall admissions rates. Five states—Idaho, Oregon, Maryland, Vermont, and Washington—were not included in the study because of insufficient data.
The following developments during the pandemic were identified:
- Overall treatment admissions declined to 50 per 10,000 people in participating states in 2020 from 66 per 10,000 in 2019—a 24% drop.
- The largest declines were observed in New Mexico (61%), Hawaii (55%), Washington D.C. (45%), Nevada (42%), and West Virginia (33%).
- Three states—Rhode Island, Louisiana, and Mississippi—reported small increases in treatment admissions.
- The decline was more significant for men: Dropping to 67 per 10,000 in 2020 vs. 88 per 10,000 in 2019.
- All racial and ethnic groups had declines in treatment admissions. The largest decline was observed among Native Americans (83 per 10,000 vs. 145), followed by Black people (63 per 10,000 vs. 86), Hispanic people (41 per 10,000 vs. 55), White people (43 per 10,000 vs. 54), and Asian people (7 per 10,000 vs. 10)
“These declines in the number of Americans receiving treatment are especially noteworthy given evidence of increases in substance use disorder and overdose death rates during the same time period,” study lead author Jonathan H. Cantor, a policy researcher at RAND, said in a news release.
References
Admissions to drug treatment programs fell sharply during first year of COVID-19 pandemic, study finds. News release. RAND Corporation. September 22, 2022. Accessed September 22, 2022.
