Mental health facilities with eating disorder treatment programs and substance use disorder treatment in the United States

ABSTRACT

Eating disorders (EDs) and substance use disorders (SUDs) often co-occur. However, not all providers that treat persons with an ED provide SUD treatment. Using the National Mental Health Services Survey, this study examined 1,387 ED treatment providers in the U.S. Facilities were categorized according to whether they provided SUD treatment. Differences based on facilities’ profit status, available treatment settings, payment options, and treatment services were examined. Most ED facilities in the sample offered SUD treatment services (67.2%). Differences in proportions of the facility type, availability of outpatient treatment, sliding fee scale payment option, whether the facility had a program for individuals with co-occurring mental health and SUD, couples/family therapy, dual disorders treatment, and if the facility provided telemedicine/telehealth were identified. Although most facilities in this sample offered SUD services, more should be done to increase such facilities’ capacity to provide treatment for co-occurring ED and SUD nationwide.

• Nearly 70% of all ED treatment facilities reported offering SUD treatment.

• Geographic disparities in these integrated services exist.

• Eighty-six percent of these facilities had outpatient treatment.

Acknowledgments

Dr. Jordan Wingate, thank you for your excellent edits.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The publicly available data are provided by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and may be found using the following link. https://www.samhsa.gov/data/data-we-collect/n-mhss-national-mental-health-services-survey

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.