Childhood Trauma, Cognitive Emotion Regulation and Motivation for Behavior Change Among Clients of Opioid Substitution Treatment With and Without Past Year Synthetic Cathinone Use During Therapy.

Background: With a decrease in heroin's purity and availability in the European drug market, Hungarian opioid dependent patients started to substitute heroin with novel psychoactive substances (NPS) and especially with synthetic cathinones.

Goal: This study aims to assess whether clients of opioid substitution treatment (OST) with and without a history of synthetic cathinone use during therapy differ in (1) the rate and type of experienced childhood trauma, (2) the way they cope with negative life events, (3) their motivation to change substance use behavior, (4) the rate of treatment retention.

Methods: A total of 198 clients of an outpatient centers (Nyírõ Gyula National Institute of Psychiatry and Addictions, Budapest) OST were asked to provide information about their general substance use experiences, including the consumption of NPS during treatment, their childhood traumatic experiences (Childhood Trauma Questionnaire), cognitive emotion regulation strategies (Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire), their motivation to change substance use behavior (University of Rhode Island Change Assessment Scale) and current psychiatric symptoms (Brief Symptom Inventory).

Novel psychoactive substance use among treatment-seeking opiate users: The role of life events and psychiatric symptoms.

Objective: Over the past 5 years, a shift to the use of novel psychoactive substances (NPS) has been observed among opioid users. The aim of this study was to assess the potential reasons for NPS use among treatment-seeking patients receiving opiate substitution therapy.

Method: A structured questionnaire was filled out by a sample of 198 opiate dependent patients of Hungary's National Institute of Psychiatry and Addiction.