Reflections on 40 Years of Drug Abuse Research: Changes in the Epidemiology of Drug Abuse

• Author: Zili Sloboda,Richard R. Clayton,Bryan Page
• Date: 01 January 2009
• Published date: 01 January 2009
• DOI: 10.1177/002204260903900105
• Subject Matter: Article

REFLECTIONS ON 40 YEARS OF DRUG ABUSE

RESEARCH: CHANGES IN THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF

DRUG ABUSE

RICHARD R. CLAYTON, ZILI SLOBODA, BRYAN PAGE

The discipline of epidemiology utilizes the constructs of agent, host, vector, and

environment to study the incidence and prevalence (i.e., the nature, extent,

distribution, correlates) and the contexts, and consequences of drug abuse in the

United States. This paper provides a selected review of the results of 40 years of

epidemiological study of drug abuse using surveillance systems, general population

surveys, ethnography and qualitative research approaches. It then addresses the

challenges in conducting research on drug abuse epidemiology. The paper concludes

with some missed opportunities and lessons learned in four decades of a large

portfolio of research studies conducted by an impressive array of distinguished

scientists.

INTRODUCTION

Epidemiology is a discipline that:

“Studies the distribution of health problems in populations to determine the

nature of the health problems, the characteristics of the population affected

with the health problems and the environmental conditions or circumstances

© 2009 BY THE JOURNAL OF DRUG ISSUES

JOURNAL OF DRUG ISSUES 0022-0426/09/01 41-56

__________

Richard R. Clayton, PhD, a sociologist, is Associate Dean for Research and the Good Samaritan

Foundation Chair in Health Behavior in the College of Public Health at the University of Kentucky. He has

been involved in research covering a broad range of topics concerning drug abuse since the early 1970s.

Zili Sloboda, Sc.D., is Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Health and Social Policy, The

University of Akron. Her research focuses on drug abuse epidemiology and prevention. Currently she is

conducting a randomized controlled trial assessing the impact of substance abuse prevention programs

delivered by D.A.R.E. off‌i cer-instructors. J. Bryan Page, Ph.D. is Professor and Chair of the Department

of Anthropology at the University of Miami. He has engaged in the anthropological study of street-based

drug use in many different settings during the last three decades. His studies have led to productive

collaborations with diverse disciplines, including molecular biology, virology, immunology, ophthalmology,

internal medicine, and psychiatry. Each of his studies begins by establishing a perspective on the use

of drugs in the natural habitat of the user.