Psychiatric Comorbidity and Gender Effects in Heroin and Cocaine-Addicted Patients in Specified Long-Term Treatment and Acute Inpatient Detoxification Treatment
Year: 2009
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Objective: Previous reports on heroin and cocaine addicts showed drug-related and gender differences in psychiatric co-morbidity, which has relevant consequences for treatment. However, studies vary substantially with respect to methods and timeframes. Studies on German patient groups are scarce. Methods: Data on psychiatric and somatic comorbidity, substance addiction history, present intake patterns and socio-demography were obtained from 43 female (n=11) and male (n=32) heroin and cocaine addicts in acute inpatient de-toxification treatment or specified long-term treatment. A European Addiction-Severity-Index (EuropASI) based centre questionnaire and the Mini-DIPS were applied. Results: Treatment groups did not differ in psychiatric comorbidity. Female subjects, however, had a significantly higher prevalence of psychiatric comorbid diagnoses (p<.05), mostly anxiety and affective disorders which significantly correlated with low occupational status (p<.05).Patients in long-term treatment abused more other substances and had an earlier onset of regular substance abuse (in particular alcohol and cannabis) (p<.05). Conclusion: Heroin and cocaine addicted females are more likely than males to have affective and anxiety disorders. Long-term treatment attenders appear to be more severely addicted (earlier onset and additional abuse) than acute treatment patients but do not differ in comorbidity. However, no axis-II diagnoses were recorded and the sample-size
Authors: Dirk Wedekind, Stefan Jacobs, Wolfgang Poser, Eckart Rüther, Udo Schneider, Konrad Cim, Kirsten Engel, Ursula Havemann-reinecke
Language: English
Subfield: Epidemiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7033561439