KFF Tracking Poll July 2023: Substance Use Crisis And Accessing Treatment
Findings
KFF analysis of NSDUH data finds 18% have experienced mild, moderate, or severe substance use disorder, similar to the 19% of those in the poll findings who have personally experienced addiction to alcohol or drugs or experienced a drug overdose leading to an emergency room visit or hospitalization.
The incidence measured in this poll is slightly larger than measured in government data, the KFF polling data has a few key differences. KFF polling data asks about individual use as well as family member use and measures those who have ever experienced addiction to opioids, while the KFF’s State Health Facts, which includes government data, measures opioid addiction in the past year.
Fentanyl is recently being added to other illegally produced drugs, such as cocaine, causing fear among recreational drug users that their consumption of other drugs may carry an increased risk of death.
The question asked in the poll asks if those who say they or a family member ever experienced any addiction ever received treatment for drug addiction or substance use disorder, indicating a higher share of those who say they received treatment than in NSDUH analysis, with 6.3% of those who experienced substance use disorder received treatment that year, according to this data.
The use of medications, in combination with counseling and behavioral therapies are meant to provide a treatment plan for substance use disorders. In 2022, buprenorphine dispensing grew by 24% compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, but it remains unclear whether the progress in increasing prescriptions has reached people of color, a group that has remained under-prescribed for the opioid treatment.