A study found a positive association between having a psychological disorder and substance use disorder in Latino/a and Asian American adults from the National Latino/a and Asian American Study data, 2001-2003.A positive association between depressive symptoms and alcohol and illicit drug use has been reported in a study with a small sample size of college students . Higher rates of suicidal ideation/attempts and lifetime generalized anxiety disorders among female heavy drinkers have also been identified in a study with a small sample size .Until now, demographic risk factors related to substance use have been identified in Asian American studies. In most studies, males were more likely to have substance use and alcohol-related problems . Males were found to have a 12-month prevalence of substance use disorders eight times higher than females,but binge drinking was found to be comparable between males and females. Youth between 18 25 years old were at five times the risk of alcohol use compared to middle and older age adults.

In particular, Southeast Asian American adults between 25 44 years old reported alcohol use comparable to the national percentage, although a lower risk of substance use of Asian Americans has been previously reported.YM Lee and K Holm reported that among elderly Korean immigrants,a negative correlation existed between their income and depression scale score, which is consistent with findings from another study . Smoking is a predictor of binge drinking among Asian Americans . DE Toleran, PD Tran,B Cabangun, J Lam, RS Battle and P Gardiner also found that among adult males in the San Jose, Daly City,cannabis grow tent and San Francisco criminal justice systems, a positive correlation existed between tobacco and substanceuse. A limited amount of studies has investigated the prevalence and predictors of co-occurring alcohol, stimulant, and marijuana use among residential treatment program users, specifically Asian Americans. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine predictors of co-occurring alcohol, stimulant, and marijuana use among Asian Americans who receive residential treatment services. Descriptive statistics were used to examine sample characteristics, including frequencies and percentages for all categorical variables.

As preliminary analyses,Chi-square tests were computed between patients’ alcohol, stimulant, and marijuana use and all demographic and independent variables. Variables showing a significant relationship to alcohol, stimulant, and marijuana use were included in the final binary logistic regression analyses. Significance level was set at an alpha level of 0.05 in all analyses. The SPSS 21 version program was used to analyze data in this study. This study examined predictors of alcohol, stimulant, and marijuana use by Asian Americans with psychiatric disorders in residential treatment programs.The prevalence of co-occurring substance use was about 53% in Asian Americans with mental disorders. Binary logistic regression analyses revealed that male gender, older age, and depressive disorder predicted more alcohol use, but homelessness and schizophrenia predicted less alcohol use. Male gender, homelessness,and smoking predicted more stimulant use. Male gender and younger age predicted more marijuana use. Most findings from this study were consistent with those from other studies except for the association between age and alcohol use. In this study, older age indicated an increased risk of alcohol use, which is inconsistent with findings from another study that showed higher alcohol use with younger age . Due to characteristics of the study’s settings, the residential treatment programs being located in the San Francisco Bay area with a higher number of homeless people, about 40% of this study’s sample was homeless.

Findings from this study revealed that homelessness significantly increased the risk of stimulant use, which is consistent with findings from another study and well supported since people with unstable housing conditions are highly vulnerable to substance use further leading to aggravated mental symptoms .In this sample of Asian Americans, schizophrenia and schizo-affective disorder ere major psychiatric diagnoses, whereas depressive disorder and bipolar disorder were much less common compared to other race/ethnic groups from other studies.This may be related to underrepresented reports for and a lower mental health service utilization for their mood disorders among Asian Americans. In accordance with findings from other studies, this study also found a lower prevalence of substance use among Asian Americans .