Symptoms of dependence, multiple substance use, and labor market outcomes

The prevalence and costs of alcohol and drug disorders pose a serious socia l concern for policymakers. In this paper, we use data from the National Ho usehold Surveys on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) to estimate simple descriptive statis tics and analysis of variance (ANOVA) models of the relationship between sy mptoms of dependence and labor market outcomes for alcohol, cigarettes, mar ijuana, and other illicit drugs. For men, we find that substance use with s ymptoms of dependence is associated with both lower employment rates and fe wer hours of work. For women, we find that substance use with symptoms of d ependence is associated with lower employment rates, but we find no consist ent evidence of a relationship between symptoms of dependence and the numbe r of hours worked. Finally, all of our point estimates are smaller in magni tude when we control for multiple substance use, suggesting that comorbidit ies play a critical role in the relationship between substance use and labo r market outcomes. Our results suggest that policymakers and researchers sh ould consider the full spectrum of substance use and dependence rather than focusing on the simple use of a single substance.