The Patient Changed First: What Shifting Substance Trends Mean for Addiction Treatment

Americans are drinking less, so is alcohol use disorder declining with them?

On this OG episode of MasterMined, Jeff Skillen joins host Mark Scrivner in the guest seat to test a question legacy treatment operators keep asking: has the patient changed faster than the program? They dig into young-adult drinking data, wellness culture, rising cannabis and kratom use, and the surge in online gambling. Behavioral health leaders will walk away knowing what the research supports, what it doesn’t, and a 30-day plan for realigning assessment tools, patient profiles, and clinical capability.

Key Moments

00:00 – Cold open: the one age group where drinking really dropped

00:48 – Jeff steps into the guest seat: has the patient changed faster than the program?

02:29 – Signal or noise: Jeff reads Mark the latest alcohol headlines

07:12 – Young adults show a real drop in drinking from 2021 to 2024

13:51 – Kratom and the rise of “gas station drugs”

15:48 – Process addictions: online sports betting and gambling among young adults

21:17 – Why your assessment tool may be a decade out of date

24:57 – Three things treatment operators should do in the next 30 days

Data Referenced in This Episode: