Be Consistent, Work the Program, Be Present Every Day

Recovery from substance abuse disorders (SUDs) is a lifelong process of change. Self-tracking technologies have been proposed by the recovery community as a beneficial design space to support people adopting positive lifestyles and behaviors in their recovery. To explore the potential of this design space, we designed and deployed a technology probe consisting of a mobile app, wearable visualization, and ambient display to enable people to track and reflect on the activities they adopted in their recovery process. With this probe we conducted a four-week exploratory field study with 17 adults in early recovery to investigate 1) what activities people in recovery desire to track, 2) how people perceive self-tracking tools in relation to their recovery process, and 3) what digital resources self-tracking tools can provide to aid the recovery process. Our findings illustrate the array of activities that people track in their recovery, along with usage scenarios, preferences and design tensions that arose. We discuss implications for holistic self-tracking technologies and opportunities for future work in behavior change support for this context.

Cirque Experience Psycho- Education in Prevention of Substance Abuse among Adolescents

Many unhealthy behaviors often begin during adolescence and represent major public health challenges. Substance abuse has a major impact on individuals, families, and communities, as its effects are cumulative, contributing to costly social, physical, and mental health problems. Psycho-education refers to the method of educating individuals who are faced with substance abuse disorders, co-occurring mental health disorders. It provides a more thorough understanding of the nature of addiction and the disease model.

Private psychiatric hospital care in Australia: a descriptive analysis of casemix and outcomes

Objective: To provide a rapid clinical update on casemix, average length of stay, and the effectiveness of Australian private psychiatric hospitals. Methods: We conducted a descriptive analysis of the publicly available patient data from the Australian Private Hospitals Association Private Psychiatric Hospitals Data Reporting and Analysis Service website, from 2015–2016 to 2019–2020. This was compared with corresponding reporting on public and private hospitals from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, and Australian Mental Health Outcomes and Classification Network. Results: In 2019–2020, there were 72 private psychiatric hospitals in Australia with 3582 acute beds. There were 42,942 inpatients with 1,286,470 days of care, and a mean length of stay 19.6 days (SD 13.9) for the financial year 2019–2020. The main diagnoses were major affective and other mood disorders (49%), and alcohol and other substance abuse disorders (21%). Clinician-rated outcome measures, that is, the HoNOS, showed an improvement effect size of 1.64, while the patient-rated MHQ-14 showed an improvement effect size of 1.18. Results are similar for previous years. Conclusions: Private psychiatric hospitals provide substantial, effective psychiatric care.

Role of Mental Disorders in Predicting the Treatment Seeking (Treatment Seeking and Non-Treatment Seeking) among People with Substance Abuse Disorders in Meybod City

Introduction: The aim of this study was to determine the role of mental disorders in predicting the treatment seeking (Treatment seeking and non-treatment seeking) among people with substance abuse disorders. Methods: The research method was analytical and cross-sectional. The statistical population of this study was people with opioid substance abuse disorder in Meybod City. The participants of the study included two groups of people with non-treatment seeking substance abuse disorders (n = 40) and the treatment seeking group (n = 40) who were selected by available sampling according to the specific conditions of these individuals. The data collection tool in this study was the Millon Mental Disorders Test and the data were analyzed using logistic regression analysis with using SPSS software version 23‎‏ ‏. Results: The findings of the present study showed that mental disorders could predict the status of people with substance abuse disorders in whether they are treatment seeking or non-treatment seeking. The results showed that non-treatment seeking group had a higher score in narcissistic personality disorder ‎(B= 0.27; Exp(B) = 1.31)‎, which was a statistically significant difference, but the treatment-seeking group had a higher score in antisocial personality disorders (B=-0.18; Exp (B) =0.83) and delusional disorder (B=-0.50; Exp (B) = 0.61). This difference was also statistically significant. Conclusion: Therefore, according to the findings, it can be concluded that there are different mental disorders between the two groups of treatment seeking and non-treatment seeking that should be considered by therapists. The findings of this study could pave the way for future research on comorbid substance abuse disorders and provide new research pathways for the researchers in the field of addiction treatment.

The relationship between substance use disorder and gambling disorder: A nationwide longitudinal health registry study

Aim: This study aimed to examine the co-morbidity and temporal relationship between substance abuse disorders (SUDs) and gambling disorder (GD). Method: Cross-tabulated census data were retrieved from the Norwegian Patient Registry. The data included the number of patients by year of first-time incidence of GD and/or SUD diagnoses, age and sex from 2008 to 2017. Results: Approximately 22.5% of GD patients were also diagnosed with SUD, whereas 0.7% of SUD patients were also diagnosed with GD. Among GD patients, males had a greater risk of SUD in the same year compared to females, whereas the risk of SUD a year or more after the onset of GD was greater among females compared to males. Among SUD patients, males had a greater risk of GD in all age categories and across all time periods except among those aged 40–66 years. The risk of GD three to four years after the onset of SUD among those aged 40–66 years was similar between SUD males and females. Discussion: The overall co-morbidity of SUD and GD was low. However, the risk of the other addictive disorder was contingent upon the nature of the first disorder. The risk of SUD among GDs over time was greater among females compared to males. Conclusions: The risk of the other addictive disorder appears to be contingent upon the first addictive disorder. There are sex differences in the risk trajectories of the other addictive disorder over time between GD patients and SUD patients.

A Retrospective Cohort Study on the increasing trend of suicide ideations and risks in an opioid-dependent population of Puerto Rico 2015-2018

Background: The rate of suicide attempts among people with substance abuse disorders in the U.S. is six times higher than in the general population. The prevalence of suicidal ideations and attempts continues to increase in Puerto Rico, with a significant incidence in substance-abusing populations. Methods: This retrospective cohort study evaluate the suicide profile of 4,347 opioid-dependent participants in ASSMCA's methadone center in San Juan, PR, from 2015 to 2018 using questions related to suicidal ideation and attempts included in the admission questionnaire. Results: Participants reporting suicide ideation increase from 8.5% in 2015 to 17.0% in 2018. In 2015 only 7.0% claimed to have had a history of a suicide attempt, increasing to 12.4% in 2018. Discussion: Our data support the need for screening for suicide risk among substance-abusing populations to identify targeted interventions. The identification of high-risk populations for suicide can help during rehabilitation and finding the adequate resources needed.

Call Me Back: Examining Provider Biases Through Callback Rates and Responsiveness

We conducted a phone-based field experiment to investigate the callback rate of psychologists. Providers ( N = 903) in Los Angeles, California who were selected from a health maintenance organization insurance panel list were left voicemails by actors simulating patients of various backgrounds (i.e., race, gender, clinical diagnosis, and ethnic distinctiveness of name). Findings indicated that 71.5% of providers did not return calls to prospective patients. There were no main effects of race and ethnicity on callback. However, ethnic distinctiveness of name moderated the effects of diagnosis. Providers were more responsive to depressed patients with ethnic names, but less responsive to patients with ethnic names and personality or substance abuse disorders. These findings are important because unresponsive providers and insurance companies that do not provide up-to-date panel listings can act as barriers to care, which can have deleterious consequences for help-seekers. Advocacy recommendations and the importance of cultural competency are highlighted.