American Indians & Alaskan Natives Substance Use Disorders

In the last month, fewer Native Americans and Alaskan Natives (35%) drank than Whites (51%) and Hispanics (40%), but they were more likely to binge drink (26%) or to drink heavily (7%) (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2001a).

Alcohol use results in many of Native Americans' most serious health and social problems like traffic fatalities (Voas et al., 2000), cirrhosis (Singer & Hoyert, 2000), and fetal alcohol syndrome (Miller et al., 2002). Alcohol use disorders have been called the number-one killer of American Indians and Alaska Natives (French, 2000).

Native Americans are more likely than those of other racial or ethnic groups to report having ever tried an illicit drug (54%) (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2001a).

There are hundreds of tribes and no good epidemiological studies of substance use disorders across Native American and Alaska Native populations (Weaver, 2001).