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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Addictive Disorders
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1368598

Substance Use Disorder Risk Assessment: Positive Emotional Experiences with First Time Use and Substance Use Disorder Risk Assessment

Provisionally accepted
Karen E. Arscott Karen E. Arscott 1*Donna M. Eget Donna M. Eget 2Maria C. Marcos Maria C. Marcos 1Brian J. Piper Brian J. Piper 1,3
  • 1 Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, Scranton, United States
  • 2 Medicus Urgent Care, Dunmore, Pennsylvania, United States
  • 3 Other, Forty Fort, Pennsylvania, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: Substance Use Disorder (SUD) screening tools used in current practice are designed to identify SUD once patients have begun dangerous drug use. While these screening tools are valuable, prevention and avoidance of SUD would save countless lives. This study addresses this care gap. The aim was to develop a simple screening tool for patients who may be prone to develop Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) and/or SUD prior to addiction. It was hypothesized that participants with initially positive emotional experiences would be correlated with a future SUD diagnosis. Methods: The study involved a self-administered survey using a cross-sectional design and was carried out over one-month in the spring of 2021. Those patients who presented to the MAT clinic (SUD group) were seen in a separate area than the patients presenting for urgent care (Comparison group). Participants (N = 259) were voluntarily recruited from MAT and Urgent care: Patients receiving acute care were assigned to the Comparison (N = 126, 50.8% female, 5.7% non-white, 27.2 age < 34) and those receiving treatment for SUD were assigned to the MAT group (N =133, 40.8% female, 4.8% non-white, 36.8% <34). The survey questioned demographics (4 items), risk factors for AUD/SUD (6 items), information about first alcohol/opioid experiences (16 items), and factors for seeking AUD/SUD treatment and recovery (2 items). Feelings were categorized as positive (e.g., euphoria, happiness, self-confident), neutral (e.g., nothing, normal), or negative (e.g., depressed, sad, sick). Results: The MAT group felt more positive feelings with first usage of alcohol and opioids compared to the comparison group (p<.001). With first usage of opioids specifically, MAT (0.13 + 0.04) and comparison (0.29 + 0.07) groups differed (p <.001). Over half (55.3%), of the MAT participants reported feeling self-confident with first use of alcohol while only 29.7% of the comparison reported this (p<.001). Over three-fifths (63.7%) of the MAT group reported feeling of euphoria with the first usage of opioids compared to one-tenth (9.8%) in the comparison group (p<.001). Discussion: This retrospective cross-sectional report shows the first affective responses to substances may predict risk for future SUD and could be a prevention screening tool.

    Keywords: substance use disorder, SUD, alcohol use disorder, aud, Risk Assessment, screening, emotion, Medication assisted treatment

    Received: 30 Jan 2024; Accepted: 25 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Arscott, Eget, Marcos and Piper. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Karen E. Arscott, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, Scranton, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.