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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Addictive Disorders
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1467144
This article is part of the Research Topic COVID and Psychotropics 2024: Lessons Learnt and Future Directions for Research View all articles

Consumption patterns before and during the COVID-19 pandemic among patients admitted to inpatient drug detoxification treatment: Results of two cross-sectional surveys from 2018 and 2021

Provisionally accepted
Patrik Roser Patrik Roser 1,2Michael Specka Michael Specka 1Udo Bonnet Udo Bonnet 1,3Thomas Kuhlmann Thomas Kuhlmann 4Stefan Kühnhold Stefan Kühnhold 5Renate Steinert Renate Steinert 6Benita Zeiske Benita Zeiske 7Daniel Deimel Daniel Deimel 1,8Norbert Scherbaum Norbert Scherbaum 1*
  • 1 Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, University of Duisburg-Essen, LVR Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany
  • 2 Center for Addictive Disorders, Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
  • 3 Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatic Medicine, Castrop-Rauxel Evangelical Hospital, Castrop-Rauxel, Germany
  • 4 Department of Addictive Disorders, Psychosomatische Klinik Bergisch Gladbach, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany
  • 5 Department of Addiction Medicine, LWL Hospital Lippstadt/Warstein, Warstein, Germany
  • 6 Department of Addiction Medicine, LWL-Klinik Münster, Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
  • 7 Department of Addictive Disorders, Alexius / Josef Hospital, Neuss, Germany
  • 8 TH Nuremberg, Faculty of Social Science, Nuremberg Institute of Technology, Nürnberg, Bavaria, Germany

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

    Background: The lockdown measures during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic could have influenced drug consumption patterns of persons with drug use disorder, especially due to a reduced availability of drugs, an increased consumption of sedating substances as a coping strategy, or a shift to novel psychotropic substances (NPS) associated with an increased drug buying in the internet. In this study, the consumption patterns of people mainly with opioid use disorder entering inpatient drug detoxification treatment were investigated in the same hospitals with the same methods before and during the pandemic. Methods: At admission, patients were interviewed regarding their consumption patterns using the EuropASI questionnaire. In addition, changes in the routes of drug acquisition were assessed. Results: In five hospitals in Western Germany, 213 (2021) and 175 persons (2018) were recruited. Sociodemographic data were similar in both cohorts (mean age around 40 years, mainly male, about 50% with migrant background, high unemployment rate). Rates of use of various drugs during the last 30 days were also similar. Differences were detected for gabapentinoids and opioid analgesics (increase >5%) as well as for cannabis (decrease >5%). Current use of NPS was low in both surveys. Only a minority of patients had experiences with drug acquisition in the internet. Discussion: The pandemic had only a minor influence on consumption patterns and routes of drug acquisition in this sample. It remains to be seen whether the increased use of gabapentinoids and opioid analgesics will continue despite the end of the pandemic.

    Keywords: COVID-19, Opioid use disorder, Consumption pattern, Gabapentinoids, novel psychotropic substances, route of acquisition

    Received: 19 Jul 2024; Accepted: 26 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Roser, Specka, Bonnet, Kuhlmann, Kühnhold, Steinert, Zeiske, Deimel and Scherbaum. 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: Norbert Scherbaum, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, University of Duisburg-Essen, LVR Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany

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