Drug List as a Cognitive Support to Provide Detailed Information on a Patient's Drug Use: A Comparison of Two Methods Within the Assessment of Drug Misuse and Dependence.

Background: It is important to identify the type of drugs a patient has used, especially when polydrug misuse has increased and new drugs and patterns of misuse are quickly spread.

Objectives: In order to acquire sufficient information about drug use, an effective and simple form of mapping is needed.

Methods: Persons actualized for Opioid Substitution Treatment (n = 135) were interviewed about their drug-history in a two-stage model. First, they were asked to write down the drugs misused, and dot those injected with a felt pen. Second, they were asked to do the same on a drug list provided as a cognitive support. For a subsample of 50 persons, the drug list included four fictive drugs to evaluate possible over-reporting.

Results: The use of a drug list did not take longer than the traditional way of using open questions, i.e. about 5-8 minutes. Using a drug list gave a cognitive support resulting in a much higher proportion/number of reported drugs. The majority, 97%, used more than one drug. None of the patients who were given the drug list that included fictive drug names reported having used any of them. The respondents reported 43 additional substances to the 125 given on the list which improve our knowledge of the drug scene.

Conclusions/importance: Using a drug-list was superior to open questions; it does not take more time and provides additional, clinically relevant information than open questions. Using a drug-list also gives improved knowledge of new drugs entering the local drug scene.