Almost One in Ten Americans Has Addiction Disorder

More than 17 million Americans – 8.5 percent of the population ? have alcohol-use disorders, and 4.2 million meet the criteria for other drug-use disorders, according to a new survey from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

Results from the 2001-2002 National Epidemiology Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions showed that, overall, 9.4 percent of the U.S. Population, or 19.4 million adults, have diagnosable alcohol or other drug disorders.

About one in five people with addictive disorders also has a co-occurring mental disorder, NIAAA reported. The study was published in the August 2004 edition of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Illinois Church Action on Alcohol & Addiction Problems,…  Volume 67, No. 3, September 2004

Reprinted from Join Together, August 3, 2004