The Authors’ Own Words: Predictors of Substance Use Treatment Initiation and Engagement Among Adult and Adolescent Medicaid Recipients

The Authors’ Own Words:

We ask authors to describe their impressions regarding the implications of their accepted work, how their findings will change practice, and what is noteworthy about the work.

Predictors of Substance Use Treatment Initiation and Engagement Among Adult and Adolescent Medicaid Recipients

Bonnie K. Lind, PhD; Dennis McCarty, PhD; Yifan Gu, MS; Robin Baker, PhD; & K. John McConnell, PhD

Substance Abuse Vol. 40, Iss. 3, 2019

“This is the first analysis that looks at predictors of SUD treatment in both adolescents and adults in a Medicaid population. We found substantive differences in predictors of treatment initiation and engagement between adults and adolescents, including in gender and race groups, urban vs. rural residence, and presence of a psychiatric diagnosis. These findings suggest that efforts to improve treatment and engagement generally may need to differentiate strategies for adult and adolescent populations. In particular, efforts that may be successful for improving these measures for adult populations may be ineffective for adolescent populations, and, depending on the strategies, could exacerbate existing racial and gender disparities.“