Correlates of Perceived Discrimination Related to Substance Use Disorders Among Patients in Methadone Maintenance Treatment

ABSTRACT

This study sought to examine demographic, treatment-related, and diagnosis-related correlates of substance use disorder (SUD)-related perceived discrimination among patients receiving methadone maintenance treatment (MMT). Participants were 164 patients at nonprofit, low-barrier-to-treatment-access MMT programs. Participants completed measures of demographics, diagnosis-related characteristics (Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI-18) and Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ)), and treatment-related characteristics. Perceived discrimination was measured on a seven-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (“Not at all”) to 7 (“Extremely”) in response to the item: “I often feel discriminated against because of my substance abuse.” Given the variable’s distribution, a median split was used to categorize participants into “high” and “low” discrimination groups. Correlates of high and low discrimination were analyzed with bivariate and logistic regression models. Ninety-four participants (57%) reported high SUD-related perceived discrimination. Bivariate analyses identified six statistically significant correlates of SUD-related perceived discrimination (P < .05): age, race, age of onset of opioid use disorder, BSI-18 Depression, DEQ Dependency, and DEQ Self-Criticism. In the final logistic regression model, those with high (versus low) SUD-related perceived discrimination were more likely to report depressive symptoms and be self-critical. Patients in MMT with high compared to low SUD-related perceived discrimination may be more likely to report being depressed and self-critical.

KEYWORDS:

• Depression
• discrimination
• methadone
• opioid use disorder
• race

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no relevant conflicts of interest.

Notes

1. A similar pattern of findings emerged in regression analyses in which perceived discrimination related to SUD was treated as a continuous variable, with the exception that age of onset of opioid use disorder (β=-0.15, p = .04) and dependency ((β=-0.15, p = .03) also emerged as significant predictors.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this research was supported by NIH: K23 DA024050 and RM1 DA055310 (for DTB); U01 HL 150596-01 (DTB and NSR).