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Substance Misuse

Answer

Data on alcohol dependence are included in the adult psychiatric morbidity survey, ““Adult Psychiatric Morbidity in England, 2007”” (APMS), which was published in January 2009. The Department estimates alcohol dependence by reference to a score of 16 or more on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT)¹. Estimates of the percentage of alcohol dependent individuals aged 16 or over by region are in the following table."¹ AUDIT was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a method of screening for excessive drinking and to help identify alcohol dependence. It consists of 10 questions about recent alcohol use, alcohol dependence symptoms, and alcohol-related problems."

Estimate of the percentage of alcohol dependent¹ individuals aged 16 or over by region
	Males	Females
North East	10.2	3.7
North West	6.4	2.3
Yorkshire and the Humber	6.2	2.7
East Midlands	4.0	2.2
West Midlands	6.7	2.0
East of England	6.2	0.6
London	4.4	1.3
South West	5.7	1.7
South East	5.4	1.9
England	5.8	1.9
¹ Scoring 16 or more on the AUDIT.
Note:
This definition is consistent with that used in the Alcohol Needs Assessment Research Project (ANARP) published in 2005. ANARP used a cut-off score on the AUDIT of 16 to identify 'moderately or severely dependent' drinkers, and with a view to estimating the need for treatment.
Source:
APMS, 2007

In the APMS, alcohol dependence was also assessed using the Severity of Alcohol Dependence Questionnaire (SADQ-C), with a score of four or more indicating mild, moderate or severe dependence. This includes cases of mild dependence not requiring any interventions. The figures for this definition are in the following table.

Percentage prevalence of alcohol dependence by region and sex
	Government office region
SADQ-C Score¹	North East	North West	Yorkshire and the Humber	East Midlands	West Midlands	East of England	London	South West	South East
Men
0-3	92.3	87.4	88.8	91.9	92.1	90.9	93.9	93.1	92.1
4-19	6.9	11.9	10.4	8.1	6.0	7.6	5.5	5.2	7.5
20-34	0.9	0.6	0.8	—	1.9	1.0	0.5	1.7	0.3
35-60	—	0.1	—	—	—	0.5	—	—	0.1
Any dependence	7.7	12.6	11.2	8.1	7.9	9.1	6.1	6.9	7.9
Women
0-3	93.3	95.9	96.9	94.9	96.7	98.3	97.8	97.0	97.2
4-19	6.5	4.1	3.1	5.1	3.1	1.4	2.1	3.0	2.8
20-34	—	—	—	0.3	—	—	—	—	—
35-60	0.2	—	0.1	—	0.1	—	—	—	—
Any dependence	6.7	4.1	3.1	5.1	3.3	1.7	2.2	3.0	2.8
¹ A SADQ-C score of 0-3 = no dependence, 4-19 = mild dependence, 20-34 = moderate dependence and 35-60 = severe dependence
Source:
APMS, 2007

Data on prevalence of cigarette smoking among individuals aged 16 years and over in each region in England are collected by the Office for National Statistics and reproduced in the following table for 2009.

Percentage prevalence of cigarette smoking by sex and region for individuals aged 16 or over, 2009
	Males	Females
North East	20	23
North West	24	22
Yorkshire and the Humber	23	22
East Midlands	19	18
West Midlands	22	21
East of England	20	18
London	26	19
South West	19	17
South East	21	18
England	22	20
Source:
Smoking and drinking among adults, 2009: A report on the 2009 General Lifestyle Survey

Data on the number or rate of individuals who are dependent on controlled substances are not centrally collected. However, data on those who are opiate and/or crack cocaine dependent, are collected and are given in the following table.

Estimated number of opiate and/or crack cocaine users by region, 2008-09
	Estimated number of problem drug users
North East	18,480
North West	52,055
Yorkshire and the Humber	39,254
East Midlands	26,034
West Midlands	37,125
East of England	22,871
London	62,769
South West	27,549
South East	35,092
England	321,229
Source:
Estimates of the Prevalence of Opiate Use and/or Crack Cocaine Use, 2008-09: Sweep 5 report, The Centre for Drug Misuse Research, University of Glasgow

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

48307; 525 c1280-2W

Session

2010-12

Subjects

Alcoholic drinks Drugs Misuse

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk