Sociodemographic profile, pattern of opioid use, and clinical profile in patients with opioid use disorders attending the de-addiction center of a tertiary care hospital in North India

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Opioids are the major drugs of potential harm and health consequences with more and more people getting involved in it especially from rural areas. One of the concerns with opioids is the injecting route used for their administration. The objective of this study was to assess the sociodemographic profile, pattern of opioid use, and clinical profile in patients with opioid use disorders. Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted among the opioid use disorder patients ≥10 years of age, diagnosed as per the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders-5 (DSM-5), who visited the drug de-addiction center for the treatment. A semi-structured pro forma was used to record sociodemographic profile. Opioid use disorder and psychiatric comorbidity were diagnosed as per the DSM-5 after a thorough clinical assessment. Results: A total of 74 patients were included in this study. The mean age of our patients was 27.55 years (standard deviation ± 7.26) with majority of patients (83.78%) between 20 and 40 years of age. Most of the patients were males (97.5%) from nuclear families (75.68%) and from rural background (62.16%). Majority of patients (48.65%) had started using opioids in 20–29 years age group with heroin as the most common opioid used in 62.16%. Majority of our patients (43.24%) were using intravenous route. Psychiatric comorbidity was present in 41.88% with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (24.32%) as the most common. Conclusion: Rural areas and students are increasingly involved in opioid use disorders. Heroin use has increased significantly when compared with previous study particularly through intravenous route.