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“With tramadol, I ride like a Jaguar”: a qualitative study of motivations for non-medical purpose tramadol use among commercial vehicle operators in Kumasi, Ghana

BACKGROUND: The misuse of tramadol has become a major aspect of the wider substance use challenge in recent years and is evolving into a health crisis at an alarming rate. However, literature on motivations for non-medical purpose tramadol use among commercial vehicle operators remains inadequate. T...

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Autores principales: Peprah, Prince, Agyemang-Duah, Williams, Appiah-Brempong, Emmanuel, Akwasi, Adjei Gyimah, Morgan, Anthony Kwame
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7376674/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32703243
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13011-020-00292-4
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author Peprah, Prince
Agyemang-Duah, Williams
Appiah-Brempong, Emmanuel
Akwasi, Adjei Gyimah
Morgan, Anthony Kwame
author_facet Peprah, Prince
Agyemang-Duah, Williams
Appiah-Brempong, Emmanuel
Akwasi, Adjei Gyimah
Morgan, Anthony Kwame
author_sort Peprah, Prince
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The misuse of tramadol has become a major aspect of the wider substance use challenge in recent years and is evolving into a health crisis at an alarming rate. However, literature on motivations for non-medical purpose tramadol use among commercial vehicle operators remains inadequate. The aim of this study was to document the motivations for non-medical purposes tramadol use in Kumasi. Such an understanding could inform policy direction to regulate non-medical purposes tramadol use in Ghana. METHODS: We conducted this exploratory qualitative study with 23 purposively selected commercial vehicle drivers (15) and assistants (8) in Kumasi, Ghana. Data for the study were collected through in-depth face-to-face interviews between June 2018 and March 2019. Using a thematic analytical approach, the interviews were coded and analysed. RESULTS: Multiple motivations for non-medical purposes tramadol use were found including those related to: (1) sexual; (2) psychological; (3) physical; and (4) economic factors. Participants also reported three main inter-linking categories of perceived tramadol adverse effects: (1) physical; (2) psychological; and (3) social effects. Although participants indicated no plans for stopping their non-medical use of tramadol any time soon, strong willingness was voiced for supporting officials in finding and dealing with non-medical purpose tramadol sellers. CONCLUSION: Non-medical purposes tramadol use was associated with a confluence of factors, ranging from enhanced sexual performance to economic reasons. Based on the findings of the study and the dependence and addictive potentials of tramadol, there is the need for psychoeducational programmes for persons who misuse tramadol and enhancement of operational capacities of regulatory agencies.
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spelling pubmed-73766742020-07-23 “With tramadol, I ride like a Jaguar”: a qualitative study of motivations for non-medical purpose tramadol use among commercial vehicle operators in Kumasi, Ghana Peprah, Prince Agyemang-Duah, Williams Appiah-Brempong, Emmanuel Akwasi, Adjei Gyimah Morgan, Anthony Kwame Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy Research BACKGROUND: The misuse of tramadol has become a major aspect of the wider substance use challenge in recent years and is evolving into a health crisis at an alarming rate. However, literature on motivations for non-medical purpose tramadol use among commercial vehicle operators remains inadequate. The aim of this study was to document the motivations for non-medical purposes tramadol use in Kumasi. Such an understanding could inform policy direction to regulate non-medical purposes tramadol use in Ghana. METHODS: We conducted this exploratory qualitative study with 23 purposively selected commercial vehicle drivers (15) and assistants (8) in Kumasi, Ghana. Data for the study were collected through in-depth face-to-face interviews between June 2018 and March 2019. Using a thematic analytical approach, the interviews were coded and analysed. RESULTS: Multiple motivations for non-medical purposes tramadol use were found including those related to: (1) sexual; (2) psychological; (3) physical; and (4) economic factors. Participants also reported three main inter-linking categories of perceived tramadol adverse effects: (1) physical; (2) psychological; and (3) social effects. Although participants indicated no plans for stopping their non-medical use of tramadol any time soon, strong willingness was voiced for supporting officials in finding and dealing with non-medical purpose tramadol sellers. CONCLUSION: Non-medical purposes tramadol use was associated with a confluence of factors, ranging from enhanced sexual performance to economic reasons. Based on the findings of the study and the dependence and addictive potentials of tramadol, there is the need for psychoeducational programmes for persons who misuse tramadol and enhancement of operational capacities of regulatory agencies. BioMed Central 2020-07-23 /pmc/articles/PMC7376674/ /pubmed/32703243 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13011-020-00292-4 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Peprah, Prince
Agyemang-Duah, Williams
Appiah-Brempong, Emmanuel
Akwasi, Adjei Gyimah
Morgan, Anthony Kwame
“With tramadol, I ride like a Jaguar”: a qualitative study of motivations for non-medical purpose tramadol use among commercial vehicle operators in Kumasi, Ghana
title “With tramadol, I ride like a Jaguar”: a qualitative study of motivations for non-medical purpose tramadol use among commercial vehicle operators in Kumasi, Ghana
title_full “With tramadol, I ride like a Jaguar”: a qualitative study of motivations for non-medical purpose tramadol use among commercial vehicle operators in Kumasi, Ghana
title_fullStr “With tramadol, I ride like a Jaguar”: a qualitative study of motivations for non-medical purpose tramadol use among commercial vehicle operators in Kumasi, Ghana
title_full_unstemmed “With tramadol, I ride like a Jaguar”: a qualitative study of motivations for non-medical purpose tramadol use among commercial vehicle operators in Kumasi, Ghana
title_short “With tramadol, I ride like a Jaguar”: a qualitative study of motivations for non-medical purpose tramadol use among commercial vehicle operators in Kumasi, Ghana
title_sort “with tramadol, i ride like a jaguar”: a qualitative study of motivations for non-medical purpose tramadol use among commercial vehicle operators in kumasi, ghana
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7376674/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32703243
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13011-020-00292-4
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