Trajectories of psychological distress during recovery from polysubstance use disorder

Figures & data

Table 1. Baseline demographic and clinical variables for included patients from the Norwegian Stayer study cohort (N = 141).

	Mean (SD)	Min/max
Age	27.5 (7.7)	16/51
Male/female	92/49	–
Education	12.3 (2.0)	3/18
Permanent housing, n (%)	80 (56.7)	–
Stable income, n (%)	91 (64.5)	–
Working, n (%)	23 (16.3)	–
Age of drug debut	13.1 (2.2)	8/23
Years of drug use	14.5 (7.8)	3/37
Treatment attempts, n (%)	1.6 (2.4)	0/20
Inpatient/outpatient	75/51	–

All data are mean (SD), unless otherwise specified.

Table 2. Gender-stratified mean t-scores on ten symptom dimensions, and three global indices on the SCL-90-R (N = 141).

	Total	Male (N = 92)	Female (N = 49)	p-Value^a
Somatization	1.0 (0.7)	0.9 (0.7)	1.1 (0.8)	0.232
Compulsive behavior	1.5 (0.7)	1.5 (0.8)	1.6 (0.7)	0.216
Interpersonal sensitivity	1.3 (0.8)	1.2 (0.8)	1.3 (0.9)	0.487
Depression	1.4 (0.8)	1.3 (0.8)	1.5 (0.8)	0.199
Anxiety	1.3 (0.8)	1.3 (0.8)	1.4 (0.9)	0.428
Hostility	0.8 (0.8)	0.8 (0.8)	0.9 (0.9)	0.698
Phobic anxiety	1.0 (0.9)	0.9 (0.8)	1.1 (0.9)	0.285
Paranoia	1.1 (0.9)	1.1 (0.8)	1.2 (1.0)	0.489
Psychoticism	0.7 (0.6)	0.7 (0.6)	0.7 (0.6)	0.991
Additional	1.4 (0.8)	1.4 (0.8)	1.5 (0.9)	0.466
Global Severity Index	1.2 (0.6)	1.1 (0.6)	1.2 (0.7)	0.300
Positive symptom total	52.4 (19.5)	51.9 (20.1)	53.3 (18.5)	0.677
Positive symptom distress	1.9 (0.5)	1.8 (0.5)	2.0 (0.5)	0.164

SCL-90-R: Symptom Checklist 90 Revised.

All data are mean (SD), unless otherwise specified.

^a Group differences between male and female participants.

Table 3. Substance use during the follow-up period for the different patient groups.

Category	Substance use^a	N
Stable abstinence (N = 32)	0 − 0 − 0 − 0	32
Unstable abstinence (N = 32)	0 − 1 − 0 − 0	6
	0 − 0 − 1 − 0	8
	0 − 1 − 1 − 0	13
	0 − (M/1) − (M/1) − 0	5^b
Relapse (N = 77)	0 − 1 − 0 − 1	8
	0 − 1 − 1 − 1	47
	0 − 0 − 1 − 1	10
	0 − 0 − 0 − 1	6
	0 − (M/1) − (M/1) − 1	6^c

^a “0” indicates no substance use; “1” indicates positive substance use; M indicates missing data.

^b One missing on 3-month visit, four missing on 6-month visit.

^c One missing on 3-month visit, five missing on 6-month visit.

Table 4. Fixed effects estimates in linear mixed regression model for SCL-90-R GSI t-score from baseline to 12-month follow-up.

Outcome	Fixed effect	Estimates	SE	95% CI
SCL-90-R	Main effects group
	Stable abstinence	−0.34*	0.13	−0.6 to −0.1
	Unstable abstinence	−0.01	0.13	−0.2 − 0.3
	Relapse group	0 (ref)
	Baseline	0 (ref)
	3 months	−0.19*	0.07	−0.3 to −0.1
	6 months	−0.42**	0.08	−0.6 to −0.3
	12 months	−0.10	0.07	−0.2 − 0.0
	Interaction, group × time
	Stable abstinence × baseline	0 (ref)
	Stable abstinence × 3 months	−0.21	0.13	−0.5 − 0.1
	Stable abstinence × 6 months	−0.05	0.14	−0.3 − 0.2
	Stable abstinence × 12 months	−0.41*	0.13	−0.7 to −0.2
	Unstable abstinence × baseline	0 (ref)
	Unstable abstinence × 3 months	−0.31*	0.13	−0.6 to −0.1
	Unstable abstinence × 6 months	−0.05	0.15	−0.3 − 0.2
	Unstable abstinence × 12 months	−0.49**	0.13	−0.7 to −0.2
	Relapse × time	0 (ref)

SCL-90-R GSI: Symptoms Checklist 90 Revised Global Severity Index; SE: standard error; CI: confidence interval. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.001.

Figure 1. Estimated marginal means of SCL-90-R GSI T-score during 12 months of follow up. Footnote: Panel A is based on participants with stable abstinence; Panel B is based on participants with unstable abstinence; and Panel C is based on patients with relapse.