Substance Abuse/Addiction among Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders

The 2010 U.S. Census reports that Asians are the fastest growing racial group in the country, comprising 18.2 million people, with Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders accounting for 1.4 million Americans¹. It is vital to extend the dialogue on substance abuse to include Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders. The perception of Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States as a largely successful and well-integrated monolith, a "model minority," colors the perceptions of the true lived experiences of Asian-Americans and Pacific-Islanders in the U.S.

Alongside external societal perceptions of success in the United States, specific cultural factors can make it harder for Asian-American and Pacific Islanders who are chemically dependent on substances to get help. Asian-Americans are more likely to seek help and support from personal networks which include friends, family and religious communities before consulting with professionals about their mental health issues³. Additional barriers to treatment may include language barriers and a lack of awareness about resources. Treatment goals for Asian-Americans who struggle with addiction should consider the social group of the client, how integrated the client feels within their group and how harmonious the nature of the group is. Practitioners should examine psychosomatic symptoms such as headaches, insomnia or indigestion in addition to asking about general mood or happiness²_.

During the month of May, we commemorate Asian-American/Pacific Islander Heritage Month. This month, the Ethnicity and Health in America Series will be raising public awareness about substance abuse and addiction among Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders. We are featuring the work of Yih-Ing Hser, a quantitative psychologist examining drug treatment evaluation, epidemiology, the natural history of drug addiction and innovative statistical modeling development

Sources

¹ "Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations." SAMHSA. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administrationopens in new window, 18 Feb. 2016. Web. 09 April 2017.
³ "Asian American/Pacific Islander Communities and Mental Health."opens in new window Mental Health America. Mental Health America, 30 June 2016. Web. 12 April 2017.
² Gimeno, Jessica. "5 Ways Asian Americans and Mental Health Professionals Can Build Family Support." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.comopens in new window, 11 May 2016. Web. 11 April 2017.

Effects of a randomized contingency management intervention on opiate abstinence and retention in methadone maintenance treatment in China

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Article Abstract

Aims: Methadone maintenance treatment has been made available in China in response to the rapid spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), but high rates of dropout and relapse are problematic. The aim of this study was to apply and test if a contingency management (or motivational incentives) intervention can improve treatment retention and reduce drug use. Design: Random assignment to usual care with (n = 160) or without (n = 159) incentives during a 12‐week trial. Incentives participants earned draws for a chance to win prizes on two separate tracks targeting opiate‐negative urine sample or consecutive attendance; the number of draws increased with continuous abstinence or attendance. Setting: Community‐based methadone maintenance clinics in Shanghai and Kunming. Participants: The sample was 23.8 percent female, mean age was 38, mean years of drug use was 9.4 and 57.8 percent had injected drugs in the past 30 days. Measurements: Treatment retention and negative drug urine. Findings: Relative to the treatment‐as‐usual (control) group, better retention was observed among the incentive group in Kunming (75 percent versus 44 percent), but no difference was found in Shanghai (90 percent versus 86 percent). Submission of negative urine samples was more common among the incentive group than the usual care (74 percent versus 68 percent in Shanghai, 27 percent versus 18 percent in Kunming), as was the longest duration of sustained abstinence (7.7 weeks versus 6.5 in Shanghai, 2.5 versus 1.6 in Kunming). The average total prize amount was 371 Yuan (or $55) per participant (527 for Shanghai versus 216 in Kunming). Conclusions: Contingency management improves treatment retention and drug abstinence in methadone maintenance treatment clinics in China, although there can be considerable site differences in magnitude of effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Yih-Ing Hser, PhD

Hser is a professor-in-residence in the department of psychiatry and the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Integrated Substance Abuse Programs and David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Read full biography.

Citation

Hser, Y.-I., Li, J., Jiang, H., Zhang, R., Du, J., Zhang, C., Zhang, B., Evans, E., Wu, F., Chang, Y.-J., Peng, C., Huang, D., Stitzer, M. L., Roll, J. and Zhao, M. (2011), Effects of a randomized contingency management intervention on opiate abstinence and retention in methadone maintenance treatment in China. Addiction, 106: 1801–1809. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03490.x