Substance use, in other words ‘use of a substance for a purpose not consistent with legal or medical guidelines, for example the non-medical use of prescription medications or the recreational use of illicit drugs’, is relatively common.

According to the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey published by NHS England a third of adults have used illicit drugs at some time in their lives and 3% had used an opioid medication that had not been prescribed for them.

Signs of dependence on illicit drugs increased in prevalence from 3.8% of 16- to 64-year-olds in 2014 to 6.7% in 2023/4, mostly related to an increase in adults reporting signs of dependence on cannabis.

Signs of dependence were associated with disadvantage, being more prevalent among adults struggling with debt (15.9%), those living in a more deprived area (7.3%), and those who were unemployed (12.9%) or economically inactive (9.9%).

Signs of dependence were also associated with poor mental health: 10.5% of adults with a common mental health condition reported signs of drug dependence, compared with 3.7% of those without a common mental health condition, the survey found.¹