(PS1-3) Anxiety Sensitivity's Unique Relationship with Substance Use Disorders

Anxiety sensitivity (AS) refers to the fear of symptoms that accompany anxiety. This construct is transdiagnostic risk and maintenance factor related to numerous forms of internalizing psychopathology (INT) and other adverse mental health outcomes, such as suicidal ideation. An emerging body of literature examining the relationship between AS and problematic substance use, however, the bulk of this work has focused alcohol and cannabis use in undergraduates. We replicate and extend the extant literature on AS and substance use disorders (SUDs) in large clinical sample (N=2617, 97% racial/ethnic minorities) recruited from an urban addiction treatment center. We hypothesized that AS would be significantly positively associated with the presence SUDs of varying drug classes (e.g., opioid), even when controlling for INT. Original regression analyses revealed that AS had a significantly positive relationship with SUDs of nearly all classes. These included alcohol (β = .271, p < .001), cannabis (β =.103, p < .001), cocaine (β = .209, p < .001), opioid (β = .119, p < .001), hallucinogen (β = .078, p < .05), and sedative (β = .178, p < .05). The exception was stimulant use disorder which displayed a positive yet insignificant relationship with AS. When INT was added to the model, AS displayed weaker yet still significant relationship to all of the SUDs classes with the exceptions of cannabis (β = -.009, p < .05) and sedative (β = -.127, p < .05). The results replicated findings that AS has a robust association with the disordered use of alcohol, cocaine, and opioids. These are also the first empirical evidence that AS is positively associated with the diagnoses of sedative and hallucinogen use disorders. These findings may also better inform substance use treatment and prevention programs, particularly for patients who are experiencing co-occurring INT.