COVID-19 pandemic-related impacts and addiction severity among service users in selected substance use treatment facilities in Nairobi, Kenya

ABSTRACT

Background

The onset of COVID-19 brought about disruption in almost every sector globally. Among the affected places in Kenya were substance use treatment facilities where service users were discharged to avoid infection. This was accompanied by closure of bars and introduction of curfews among other measures. Data on the possible impact of these disruptions on Alcohol Use Disorders is still scant. This study aimed at examining the relationship between COVID-19 pandemic experiences and severity of Alcohol Use Disorders (AUDs) symptoms.

Methods

Data were collected from 176 residential service users in selected substance use treatment facilities in Nairobi using Epidemic – Pandemic Impacts Inventory (EPII) and the Modified Addiction Severity Index.

Results

The study revealed a weak positive and significant correlation between COVID-19 impacts and addiction severity.

Conclusion

The findings imply the need for substance use treatment facilities to include life disruptions such as COVID pandemic in their assessment and intake history. The study recommends that treatment facilities need to enhance family programmes with patients’ families in order to address the higher addiction severity reported on this domain. This will enhance their treatment programs to address the COVID-19 challenges and future pandemics on addiction.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID19
• addiction severity
• recovery capital

Acknowledgments

I appreciate the International Consortium of Universities for Drug Demand Reduction (ICUDDR), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) for funding this study and Addiction Prevention and Recovery Association of Kenya (APRAK) for giving access to substance use treatment facilities for data collection.

Disclosure statement

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. However the author was a consultant Psychologist with Beautiful Mind Consultants Ltd.

Data availability statement

The datasets [GENERATED/ANALYZED] for this study can be found in the [NAME OF REPOSITORY] [LINK].

Author contributions

The author conducted the study fully individually.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the International Consortium of Universities for Drug Demand Reduction(ICUDDR) and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Mini [Grant 2022].