Predictors of Current Depressive Symptoms in a Sample of Drug Court Participants

Abstract

Interviews, completed between March 2000 and November 2002 with Kentucky drug court participants in Lexington and Bowling Green (N = 500), participated in a cross-sectional analysis examining the associations between self-reported, current depressive symptoms and various personal characteristics and experiences from the period before drug court involvement. Depressive symptoms were measured with the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), and potential correlates were derived from the Addiction Severity Index (ASI), 1992 version. BSI depression scores indicated minimal-to-moderate symptoms, with a mean individual score of 0.73, on a scale from none (0) to extreme (4) symptom strength. Numerous predictor variables were significantly associated, but multiple regression analysis identified five variables as independent correlates of depressive symptoms: 1) poorer self-rated health, 2) having ever been treated in a hospital for psychological or emotional problems, 3) being troubled by family problems in the 6 months before drug court, 4) having had conflicts with nonfamily others in the 6 months before drug court, and 5) being female. If confirmed by future, prospective research, the five variables found by the multiple regression analysis may be useful in identifying and more adequately treating substance abusers with symptoms of depression.

Keywords:

• chronic drug use
• drug court
• depressive symptoms
• health status
• social relationships

Notes

The journal's style utilizes the category substance abuse as a diagnostic category. Substances are used or misused; living organisms are and can be abused. Editor's note.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michelle Joosen

Michelle Joosen is currently an intern at the Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The research project entitled “Predictors of Current Depression in a Sample of Drug Court Participants,” supported by the Center of Drug and Alcohol Research and the Department of Behavioral Science, College of Medicine at the University of Kentucky, was part of her research externship from the Erasmus University Medical School.

Thomas F. Garrity

Thomas F. Garrity, Ph.D., is Professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Kentucky, College of Medicine, and the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research, and is the Program Director of the NIDA-funded doctoral and postdoctoral training program entitled “Research Training in Drug Abuse Behavior.” His research focuses on health and health services use by offenders with histories of drug abuse.

Michele Staton-Tindall

Michele Staton-Tindall, Ph.D., C.S.W., is a drug and alcohol project director at the University of Kentucky Center on Drug and Alcohol Research. She obtained her Ph.D. in 2005 from the College of Social Work at the University of Kentucky. She has published in the area of prison-based treatment, women and substance abuse, health service use among incarcerated women, and employment among drug user offenders.

Matthew L. Hiller

Matthew Hiller received his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Texas Christian University in 1996. More recently, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, and the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research at the University of Kentucky. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Temple University. His recent research activities have included process and outcome evaluations for Drug Courts in Kentucky. He has long-standing research interest in drug abuse treatment motivation, treatment processes, crime, and program evaluation.

Carl G. Leukefeld

Carl G. Leukefeld, D.S.W., is Professor of Behavioral Science, Psychiatry, Oral Health Science, and Social Work, and serves as Chair of the Department of Behavioral Science and Director of the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research. He came to the University of Kentucky in 1990 to establish the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research; his previous position was with the National Institute on Drug Abuse in administrative and research capacities. His research interests include drug user treatment and its outcomes, HIV prevention, criminal justice sanctions, health services, and rural populations.

J. Matthew Webster

J. Matthew Webster, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in the Department of Behavioral Science and the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research at the University of Kentucky. His research involves studies of psychosocial issues as they relate to drug use and other risk behaviors in women.