Admissions for alcohol only and alcohol with a secondary drug aged 21 or older were similar in the distribution of males and females (76 and 74 percent male, respectively).
Admissions aged 21 or older for alcohol only were older at admission and older at first intoxication compared with admissions for alcohol plus a secondary drug.2 Admissions for alcohol only were about 41 years old at admission, while admissions for alcohol plus a secondary drug were about 37 years old when they entered treatment. In addition, the average age of first intoxication for admissions for alcohol only was about 17 years old compared with 15 years old for admissions where both alcohol and another drug were reported.
Among primary alcohol admissions aged 21 or older, admissions where alcohol was the only reported substance were more likely to be White compared with admissions where both alcohol and another drug were reported (70 vs. 58 percent). More than one quarter (28 percent) of admissions for alcohol plus a secondary drug were Black, while only 13 percent of admissions for alcohol only were Black.
The primary sources of referral for both admissions for alcohol only and admissions for alcohol plus a secondary drug aged 21 or older were self/individual referrals and the criminal justice system. Admissions for alcohol only and for alcohol plus a secondary drug had similar proportions of self/individual referrals (32 and 33 percent), while admissions for alcohol only had a higher proportion of criminal justice systems referrals compared with admissions for alcohol plus a secondary drug (39 vs. 31 percent).
Service settings are of three types: ambulatory, residential/rehabilitative, and detoxification.3 In 2003, more than half of admissions for alcohol and alcohol plus a secondary drug aged 21 or older were admitted to ambulatory service settings (56 and 53 percent, respectively). Thirty-three percent of admissions for alcohol only were admitted to detoxification services while 27 percent of admissions for alcohol plus a secondary drug were admitted to detoxification services. Admissions for alcohol plus a secondary drug were almost twice as likely to enter residential/rehabilitative services compared with admissions for alcohol only (20 vs. 11 percent).
