Can you trust self‐reports among injectable drug users in clinical setting?

Abstract

Aim: The aim of the study is to examine the agreement between self‐reports of drug use pattern and urinalysis data of 112 male intravenous drug users seeking treatment at National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.

Design: All the male intravenous drug users (n = 112) seeking treatment during the study period were included in the study. Addiction Severity Index Questionnaire was administered, and the agreement between self‐reports of drug use and urine analysis of drugs using gas liquid chromatography was compared.

Findings: The data showed that although the primary drug of use was heroin in all the subjects a significant number of them were currently using a combination of buprenorphine, diazepam and pheniramine. The agreement of self‐report and urine analysis varied across the type of drug used. Acceptable agreement was seen with buprenorphine, diazepam, pheniramine and promethazine. The reports of patients on heroin and morphine showed poor agreement. Over reporting and under reporting was also observed in these subjects and the physician should be aware of this possibility.

Conclusions: Combination of urine analysis and self‐report is a useful tool for better patient care and treatment.

• Urine analysis
• self‐report
• opioids

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their thanks to Dr Rajveer Singh, Scientist, Department of Biostatistics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, for his suggestions.