The prevalence of substance use disorder among young people is around 40 percent according to the research.
Affected young people are not seeking medical help to intervene in their situation. Thus, making the situation worse for themselves and the community at large.
Research by Iowa State University has determined that young people are not seeking help to address their Substance Use Disorder(SUD), which has plagued the country.
The research work expanded on a similar finding documented by Journal of American College Health which had also concluded that college students and young people are not seeking help for SUD and multiple SUD.
Brooke Arterberry, lead author and assistant professor of psychology at Iowa State University, after analyzing the data of her finding stated that 40 percent of young people involved in the study had at least one SUD in the past one year.
The data was consistent with previous research done and documented in the latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria.
Substance use prevalence and effects
She also found that there was an insignificant difference in prevalence between college students (39.6%) and non-college peers which stood at (44.5%). The research also focused on multiple SUDs where it showed that only around 14 percent of college students suffered from the disorder.
This is compared to 19% non-college peers who stated that they suffered from multiple SUDs.
The research went a step further by researching whether the student who suffered from the disorder sought help. Unlike other studies before it, the research also focused on the prevalence of the disorder, remission and the treatment of the disorder among young people.
They found that young adults who have this disorder do not seek treatment, receive treatment or achieve remission abstinence when treated.
Arterberry stated that more research needs to be done to determine the best way to approach this problem of substance use. She also admitted that the research could not determine why young people were not seeking help for their condition.
However, she was optimistic that with more research, a solution can be found that can be able to intervene in such cases, direct prevention efforts can be focused on young people and young people can also be motivated to seek help and treatment.
Research recommendations
The research also found that only a few people with a substance use disorder were able to stop using substances. The researchers, therefore, made recommendations to universities by telling them they should invest in investigating the prevalence of substance use in their school. They also advised universities to invest in the treatment of individuals suffering from the Substance use disorder and create a framework for intervention efforts and prevention
