(PS14-96) Optimizing Substance Use Disorder Outcomes: Efficacy of Integrated and Disorder Non-Specific Interventions

Substance use disorders (SUD) are often comorbid with and share underlying mechanisms of risk and resilience with depressive and anxiety disorders. Traditional treatments are predominantly disorder-specific, resulting in longer and more costly treatments, thereby exacerbating barriers to access of treatment. There is evidence suggesting symptom improvement is possible from disorder non-specific treatments. Examining the degree of substance use improvement from disorder non-specific treatments has the potential to improve access and outcome for SUD with comorbid depression and anxiety. This study aims to contribute to this area of work by investigating the relationship between the treatment of anxiety and depression and its impact on substance use outcomes. Based on existing findings in the literature on interventions for comorbid disorders, the current investigation hypothesizes that participation in depression and anxiety-focused treatments will lead to improvements in SUD symptoms. Repeated measures analysis of variance was conducted using data from the first 8 weeks of a large randomized controlled trial (N = 385 at baseline, mean age = 26.0, 70.9% female, 83.1% Latinx). All participants received evidence-based psychotherapy for depression and anxiety. Time was included as the predictor; separate analyses were conducted with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and substance use as the outcome. The results showed that treatment was significantly associated with reductions in depressive symptoms, F(8,184) =2.42, p = 0.016, anxiety symptoms, F(8,184) = 7.35, p <.001 over the 8 week period. Importantly, the treatment also was linked to a significant decline in SUD symptoms over 8 weeks, F(3,108) = 7.53, p < .001. These findings suggest that comorbid SUD symptoms may improve with disorder non-specific treatments such as those that focus on depression and anxiety. Implications for accessibility, efficacy, and feasibility for treatments for individuals with comorbid SUD, depression, and anxiety will be discussed.