| Substance abuse is clearly a significant public health problem that affects not only individuals in the United States but is rampant across most of the world. A person whose substance abuse problem has become severe may develop symptoms of a psychiatric disorder including episodes of depression, anger, hallucinations, or suicide attempts. There is growing evidence that an important factor in non-medical prescription opioid use may be concurrent mental health problems, including depression, anxiety disorder and other common mental disorders. Correlations between mental health disorders and substance use have been found in epidemiological studies examining other forms of substance abuse (Ahmadi, J., Toobaee, S., Kharras, M., Radmehr, M., 2003; Ayyad, F. & Al-Mashaan, O., 2003; Bolton, J. M., Robinson, J., S., 2009; Brady, K. T., & Verduin, M. L., 2005; Davis, S. J. & Spillman, S., 2011; Gomes, T., Juurlink, D. N., Dhalla, I. A., Mailis-Gagnon, A., Paterson, J. M., Mamdani, M. M., 2011; Grella, C. E., Karno, M. P., Warda, U. S., Niv, N., Moore, A. A., 2009; Gros, D. F., Milanak, M. E., Brady, K. T., Back, S. E., 2013; Gros, D. F., Milanak, M. E., Brady, K. T., Back, S. E., 2013; Kenneson, A., Funderburk, J., Maisto, S. A., 2013; Lo, C. C., Monge, A. N., Howell, R. J., Cheng, T. C., 2013).;This study explores the differences between methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) patients who did not use illicit drugs and those who did use illicit drugs on depression, stress, and anxiety scores. It is hypothesized that patients have less depression, stress, and anxiety when they are free of illicit drugs. Also, a second hypothesis is that there is significant differences between patients who did not use illicit drugs and those who did use illicit drugs on age. This study utilizes an archival research design by collecting data from the treatment records of patients who currently attend a Methadone Maintenance Treatment program. The data for the study includes scores on Addiction Severity Index (ASI), which is used to gather patients' demographic information and date of admission; Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale (DASS21), which is used to gather patients' depression, anxiety, and stress scores. Results showed that participants who did not use illicit drugs had mean depression scores that were 11.09 lower than those who used illicit drugs. The 11.09 difference between mean scores reveals that, patients who use illicit drugs while they are taking daily methadone suffer more from depression as measured by the DASS-21. However, patients who are not using illicit drugs, have lower depression score. Patients who did not use illicit drugs were on average 15.31 years older than participants who used illicit drugs. The 15.31 mean score difference is statistically significant and it indicates that younger patients abuse illicit drugs more frequently than the older patients, as hypothesized. |
