Alcohol Use Among Patients with Opioid Maintenance Therapy

  • Evita Kārkliņa (Speaker)
  • Sarmīte Skaida (Co-author)

Activity: Talk or presentation types › Poster presentation

Description

Aim of this study was to examine alcohol use among patients with opioid maintenance therapy. Clinical studies indicate that about a third of patients show increased alcohol consumption. One of the methods for screening unhealthy alcohol intake, defined as risky or hazardous consumption or any alcohol use disorder was AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test).. The study was cross-sectional, quantitative and was conducted in Riga Psychiatry and Narcology Centre Outpatient clinic. The study group was patients in methadone maintenance therapy. The patients were assessed with AUDIT, with a score below 8 suggesting low-risk consumption, from 8 to 14 as harmful alcohol consumption and a score above 15 indicating the likelihood of alcohol dependence. Socio-demographic data, medical and substance use characteristics, and data about concomitant infectious diseases was also collected.. A total of 160 patients were assessed - 126 men (78,8 %) and 34 women (21,2%) with median age 42,4 years. 38 patients were latvians (23,8%), 122 others (76,2%). First patient in therapy was from 1996. Average dose of methadone was 89,96 mg/day. 82,5 % of patients had at least one of infectious diseases and from them 27,5 % were both HIV and hepatitis C positive. 24,4 % of patients were diagnosed with alcohol use disorder during program. After AUDIT 78,1 % of patients had low-risk consumption, 11,9 % - harmful use and 10% had risk of alcohol dependence.. The results of the study seem to indicate that alcohol use is lower than it was mentioned in clinical studies. In Outpatient clinic AUDIT is given only once a year and then they have a brief intervention to lower alcohol use problems if the score is above 8. Therefore AUDIT as a component of clinical policy should be incorporated with brief interventions to lower alcohol use among those patients on each visit.
Period29 Mar 2023
Event titleRSU International Research Conference 2023: Knowledge for Use in Practice
Event typeConference
OrganiserRīga Stradiņš University
LocationRiga, LatviaShow on map
Degree of RecognitionInternational

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