Comorbid Substance Use and Mental Health Disorders: Prior Treatment/Admission as a Predictor of Criminal Arrest Among American Youths

Background: There is a dearth of literature with regards to substance use disorder (SUD) treatment outcomes and criminal arrest relationships. Aim: We aimed to examine the association between criminal arrest within a month prior to SUD treatment admissions among 12- to 24-year-old Americans and the role of recurrent or prior SUD treatment. Methods: The 2017 United States Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Treatment Episode Data Set - Admissions (TEDS-A; N = 333,322) was used for this analysis. Prevalence odds ratios from the multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to determine associations between recurrent or prior SUD treatment and criminal arrest one month before admission, adjusting for selected independent variables. Results: Prior history of SUD treatment remained associated with past criminal arrest (adjusted OR = 0.972; 95% CI: 0.954-0.991; P = 0.004) after adjusting for gender, marital status, employment status, and source of income. Comorbid SUD-mental disorder was associated with past criminal arrest (adjusted OR = 1.046; 95% CI: 1.010-1.083; P = 0.012) after adjusting for gender, marital status, employment status, education, and source of income. Conclusion: Our study shows that there is a protective association between history of previous substance treatment re-admissions and its relationship with criminal arrest one month before admission.