Description/Abstract

Drug overdose deaths in the United States increasingly include the use of multiple drugs, known as polysubstance use. These include opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine, tranquilizers, and sedatives. Polysubstance use is considered high risk because it can cause dangerous synergistic effects and result in the ingestion of higher amounts of drugs. This brief summarizes findings from a study that used data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health on U.S. adults from 2002 through 2019 to examine gender and marital status differences in high-risk polysubstance use among U.S. adults ages 18 and older. The authors find that polysubstance use is higher among men and marriage was more protective against polysubstance use for men than women.

Document Type

Research Brief

Keywords

Polysubstance use, gender, marital status, overdose, population health

Disciplines

Gender and Sexuality | Sociology | Substance Abuse and Addiction

Date

2-18-2025

Language

English

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Population Research Institute at Penn State University, which is supported by an infrastructure grant by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [P2CHD041025], and by the Prevention and Methodology Training Program with funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse [T32DA017629, principal investigators J. Maggs and S. Lanza]. The authors thank Alyssa Kirk and Shannon Monnat for their comments on an earlier draft.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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