Epidemiology of Substance Use and Related Complex Health Behaviors

Catalog description

The course presents an overview of the epidemiology of substance use and related complex health behaviors within a public health framework. Students will explore a range of contributors to substance use, considering mechanisms ranging from biological to societal/structural. The course will introduce the historical background of the “war on drugs” and racial underpinnings of policies towards substance use; mental health definitions of addiction; substance use prevention strategies; substance use policies and their impacts; intervention and treatment approaches; barriers to treatment access and adherence; and structural risk factors for substance use and related problems. Students will critically evaluate methods for studying hidden and hard-to-reach populations—including sources of bias, measurement issues, and ethical considerations—as well as explore new and emerging innovations in studying substance use. We will also discuss the application of cross-cutting methods to the study of substance use (e.g., population surveillance and surveys, case-control studies, quasi-experimental designs such as difference-in-difference, mixed/qualitative methods).