Jewish Americans Substance Use Disorders

There has been no national epidemiological study of the prevalence of alcohol or drug problems among Jews in Israel (Giora Rahav, personal communication, 2002) or in the U.S.

Many Americans who identify their religion as Jewish use alcohol (Cahalan & Cisin, 1968; Hilton, 1984), but their rate of alcohol problems appears to be lower than that of Protestants and Catholics (Levav et al., 1997).

Perceptions that Jews do not develop alcohol problems may prevent them from recognizing problems or seeking help. Social service and health care providers and clergy may also fail to identify problems (Blume et al., 1980; Carpey, 1985; Ellias-Frankel et al., 2000; Vex & Blume, 2001).

Questions have been raised as to whether Jews may be more susceptible to depression and rely more heavily on prescription drugs than other groups (Carpey, 1985; Ellias-Frankel et al., 2000; Teller, 1989), but there is little hard evidence.