Cigarette smoking in subjects maintained with methadone or buprenorphine: The role of psychiatric symptoms and psychological distress

Abstract

ObjectiveThe relationship between cigarette smoking, psychiatric symptoms/psychological distress in subjects maintained with methadone or buprenorphine was studied. Methods1049 subjects with a diagnosis of heroin use disorder were enrolled. The Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R) and the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) were administered. The analyses were run in the whole sample and stratified for substitution therapies. ResultsIn the whole sample as well as among subjects maintained with methadone, the number of cigarettes smoked daily was associated with SCL-90-R Global score (whole sample: p = 0.001; ΔR2 = 0.012; subjects maintained with methadone: p ≤ 0.001; ΔR2 = 0.019) and with GHQ-12 (whole sample: p = 0.001; ΔR2 = 0.013; subjects maintained with methadone: p = 0.01; ΔR2 = 0.010) while among subjects maintained with buprenorphine, the number of cigarettes smoked daily was associated with SCL-90-R Global score (p = 0.05; ΔR2 = 0.020). ConclusionPsychiatric symptoms were associated with the number of cigarettes smoked daily among subjects maintained with methadone and among those maintained with buprenorphine, thus deserving clinical attention.