Substance Use Disorders: A Global Public Health Issue

Dear Colleagues,

Without any question, substance use disorders (SUD) such as substance abuse and addiction, are major public health concerns worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) identified SUD— together with other mental disorders—to be a leading cause for disability worldwide. For example, 5.9% of deaths worldwide can be attributed to alcohol, e.g., cardiovascular disease, diabetes, injuries, gastrointestinal diseases or cancers, etc. However, there are further psychoactive legal as well as illegal psychoactive substances such as tobacco, cannabis, stimulants, opioids, sedatives/ hypnotics, cocaine, volative solvents leading to detrimental somatic (e.g. cardiovascular disease, cancer), mental (e.g. depression, cognitive decline) and psychosocial consequences such as accidental injuries, aggression, violence, suicide and precarious living situations that come along with further societal exclusion, severer (mental) health problems and increased mental vulnerabilities, missing education, unemployment, becoming criminal, self-harm and self-stigmatization, etc.

Without any therapeutic option, SUD have a very poor outcome regarding the above-mentioned and further consequences.

This demonstrates the significant impact of prevention and intervention. Even if health care systems provide divergent possibilities for prevention and therapy, only a more or less small part of people suffering from SUD can be reached by current options. On average, most people suffering from SUD enter the treatment system after many years of SUD. Therapeutic options contain many different parts such as addiction specific counselling, motivational interviewing, cognitive-behavioral therapies, pharmacological treatment and lately different types of e-interventions.

Those entering treatment have many complex needs including mental health needs that can only be met through a combination of specialist treatment and a wider social and health care.

This Special Issue addresses divergent aspects of SUD as a worldwide major health issue. It contains somatic, mental and especially psychosocial consequences of SUD, as well as meaningful aspects of prevention and therapeutic options in different health care systems worldwide.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Healthcare

Prof. Dr. Andreas G. Franke
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.