Evaluating drug use relapse event rate and its associated factors using Poisson model

ABSTRACT

Background: Drug use is a chronic and recurrent disease, and many individuals return to using drugs a short time after rehabilitation treatment. This study investigated factors involved in increasing the number of times individuals with drug addiction problems relapse.

Methods: In this descriptive-analytic study, 700 individuals referred to seven drug rehabilitation centers in Birjand City, Iran were selected based on the date of referral to the center. Checklists and interviews with the patients were used to gather the required information; data were analyzed using Poisson model distributions.

Results: Age increases the odds of a higher number of relapses to drug addictions by 1.02 times per year of age (p < .001). Compared to those who smoke cigarettes, the odds of stopping drug use for those with no history of smoking cigarettes decreases by 0.13 with every year of age. Additionally, for every year of delay in age of initiating smoking, the number of drug addiction relapses decreases 0.96 times (p < .001). Modern drugs increase the odds of relapse compared to traditional drugs (p < .05). Individuals with university education undergo a higher number of drug rehabilitations compared to those with only an elementary school education. For every year of age delay in starting the use of drugs, the number of relapses decreases significantly by 0.97 times (p < .001).

Conclusion: This study revealed that the current age and the age when first starting drug use, education level, type of substance used, and previous history of smoking cigarettes significantly influence the number of relapses of drug addiction.

KEYWORDS:

• Relapse
• addiction
• drug use
• Poisson regression model

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Medical Toxicology and Drug Abuse Research Centre (MTDRC) of Birjand University of Medical Sciences. We are grateful to all patients, staff, and managers of addiction treatment centers in Birjand city who helped us conduct this research

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Birjand University of Medical Sciences.