Personality targeted interventions ar

Personality Targeted Interventions: REDUCE POLYSUBSTANCE ABUSE AMONG OPIATE SUBSTITUTION THERAPY (OST) CLIENTS

In Randomized controlled trials, brief coping skills interventions with anxiety sensitivity and impulsivity individuals effectively reduced substance abuse, anxiety symptoms, and criminal behaviours. These brief interventions had to be tested in patients maintained on OST.

CONTEXT

The illicit use of prescription or injection substances is extremely prevalent among OST clients, and is linked to disability, morbidity, and mortality. Personality factors, such as impulsivity, anxiety sensitivity, hopelessness and sensation seeking are robustly implicated risk for substance misuse and related harm. Associations between these personality traits and substance misuse in OST clients were demonstrated. Indeed, a randomized controlled trial revealed that certain personality traits are also influential in severe addiction cases.

OBJECTIVE

The main objective of this two-step project is to assess the feasibility of adapting brief personality-targeted coping skills interventions to address polysubstance misuse amongst opiate substitution therapy (OST) clients.

METHODS

Step 1: Relevant information was gathered and analyzed to allow the effective adaptation of an existing intervention plan to use with OST clients.

Step 2: The intervention manuals were adapted based on information obtained from step 1 and the feasibility of the interventions with OST clients were assessed.

FUNDING

CRISM – Canadian Research Initiative In Substance Misuse

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS

CO-INVESTIGATORS

FOR MORE INFORMATION

For further information please contact the Node’s team at crismatlantic@gmail.com.

Publications:

Mahu, I.T., Barrett, S.P., Conrod P.J., Bartel, S.J. & Stewart, S.H. (2021). Different drugs come with different motives: Examining motives for substance use among polysubstance users undergoing opiate agonist therapy (OAT). Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 229, 109133. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.109133

Mahu, I. T., Conrod, P. J., Barrett, S. P., Sako, A., Swansburg, J., Lawrence, M., Laroque, F., Morin, J.F., Chinneck, A., Nogueira-Arjona, R. & Stewart, S. H. (2019). Specificity of personality relationships to particular forms of concurrent substance use among opiate agonist therapy clients. Addictive Behaviors, 98, 106056. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2019.106056

Mahu, I.T., Conrod, P.J., Barrett, S.P., Sako, A., Swansburg, J. & Stewart, S.H. (2023). The four-factor personality model and its qualitative correlates among opioid agonist therapy clients. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14, 1129274. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1129274