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Developments in Drug Addiction During COVID-19—An Austrian Perspective Based on a Clinical Sample

Concerns about the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with substance use disorder (SUD) were raised by experts in the field around the world. Here we provide an Austrian perspective, discussing the impact of the pandemic on help-seeking patient with drug use disorder during the...

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Autores principales: Fuchs-Leitner, Isabella, Yazdi, Kurosch, Gerstgrasser, Nikolas W., Rosenleitner, Jan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7728611/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33329157
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.602033
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author Fuchs-Leitner, Isabella
Yazdi, Kurosch
Gerstgrasser, Nikolas W.
Rosenleitner, Jan
author_facet Fuchs-Leitner, Isabella
Yazdi, Kurosch
Gerstgrasser, Nikolas W.
Rosenleitner, Jan
author_sort Fuchs-Leitner, Isabella
collection PubMed
description Concerns about the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with substance use disorder (SUD) were raised by experts in the field around the world. Here we provide an Austrian perspective, discussing the impact of the pandemic on help-seeking patient with drug use disorder during the initial stage of the pandemic. Our perspectives are based on the situation as perceived at our clinical facility, and supported by original data collected from a small clinical sample of patients with drug use disorder (N = 32). The viewpoints and related descriptive data include the perceived individual impact of COVID-19, as well as various aspects of drug use behavior and the Austrian drug market before and after the onset of the pandemic. The consequences for a subgroup of patients in opioid substitution treatment (N = 24) are discussed. Surprisingly and in contrast to anticipated developments, we had the impression of a rather stable situation in Austria, at least at this early stage of the pandemic. The immediate impact of COVID-19 on these help-seeking patients with high levels of drug dependency seemed less severe than anticipated so far. Importantly, this observation might be a short-term effect for this already fragile group and careful monitoring of further developments as well as preparation of long-term strategies are advised. In general, problematic drug use is associated with many health risk factors and finding appropriate long-term health care strategies has to remain a top priority facing the pandemic. Our perspectives are restricted to observations from help-seeking patients at our clinic, and no conclusions for the general population can be directly drawn.
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spelling pubmed-77286112020-12-15 Developments in Drug Addiction During COVID-19—An Austrian Perspective Based on a Clinical Sample Fuchs-Leitner, Isabella Yazdi, Kurosch Gerstgrasser, Nikolas W. Rosenleitner, Jan Front Psychiatry Psychiatry Concerns about the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with substance use disorder (SUD) were raised by experts in the field around the world. Here we provide an Austrian perspective, discussing the impact of the pandemic on help-seeking patient with drug use disorder during the initial stage of the pandemic. Our perspectives are based on the situation as perceived at our clinical facility, and supported by original data collected from a small clinical sample of patients with drug use disorder (N = 32). The viewpoints and related descriptive data include the perceived individual impact of COVID-19, as well as various aspects of drug use behavior and the Austrian drug market before and after the onset of the pandemic. The consequences for a subgroup of patients in opioid substitution treatment (N = 24) are discussed. Surprisingly and in contrast to anticipated developments, we had the impression of a rather stable situation in Austria, at least at this early stage of the pandemic. The immediate impact of COVID-19 on these help-seeking patients with high levels of drug dependency seemed less severe than anticipated so far. Importantly, this observation might be a short-term effect for this already fragile group and careful monitoring of further developments as well as preparation of long-term strategies are advised. In general, problematic drug use is associated with many health risk factors and finding appropriate long-term health care strategies has to remain a top priority facing the pandemic. Our perspectives are restricted to observations from help-seeking patients at our clinic, and no conclusions for the general population can be directly drawn. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-11-27 /pmc/articles/PMC7728611/ /pubmed/33329157 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.602033 Text en Copyright © 2020 Fuchs-Leitner, Yazdi, Gerstgrasser and Rosenleitner. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychiatry
Fuchs-Leitner, Isabella
Yazdi, Kurosch
Gerstgrasser, Nikolas W.
Rosenleitner, Jan
Developments in Drug Addiction During COVID-19—An Austrian Perspective Based on a Clinical Sample
title Developments in Drug Addiction During COVID-19—An Austrian Perspective Based on a Clinical Sample
title_full Developments in Drug Addiction During COVID-19—An Austrian Perspective Based on a Clinical Sample
title_fullStr Developments in Drug Addiction During COVID-19—An Austrian Perspective Based on a Clinical Sample
title_full_unstemmed Developments in Drug Addiction During COVID-19—An Austrian Perspective Based on a Clinical Sample
title_short Developments in Drug Addiction During COVID-19—An Austrian Perspective Based on a Clinical Sample
title_sort developments in drug addiction during covid-19—an austrian perspective based on a clinical sample
topic Psychiatry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7728611/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33329157
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.602033
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