Addiction Severity and Psychopathology in Persons with Substance Use Disorder under Opioid Substitution Therapy

Abstract

Background: Opioid substitution therapy (OST) is widely used as an effective pharmacological intervention program to address substance use disorders. This study focused on examining the severity of substance use disorder and psychopathology among persons diagnosed with substance use disorder who are under opioid substitution therapy.

Methods: 60 individuals under the OST program participated from the OST Centre in STNM Hospital Gangtok Sikkim. A total sample of 60 was drawn using purposive sampling which was further divided into two groups based on the composite score in the drugs parameter in the Addiction Severity Index (<0.36 and > 0.37) according to the mean score obtained. The Addiction Severity Index by McLellan (1980) and the Symptom 90 questionnaire SCL-90-R by Derogatis (1983) were used to evaluate the addiction severity and psychopathology. Results were statistically analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U Test. 

Results: Somatization, Hostility, and Phobic anxiety are parameters of psychopathology, which are significant at 0.05 level, with individuals having higher severity in addiction with greater mean rank. “Obsessive Compulsive”, “Depression”, “Phobic anxiety”, “Paranoid Ideation”, “Psychoticism”, and “Global Severity Index”, which depict psychological distress, are significant at 0.01 level with individuals with higher severity in addiction with greater mean rank than individuals with lower severity.