Self-reported drug use patterns for drug users presenting in emergency department.
This secondary analysis of data from the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network’s “Screening Motivational Assessment and Referral to Treatment in Emergency Departments (SMART-ED)” study (CTN-0047) aimed to improve understanding of the patterns of daily self-reported drug use among participants. In the original trial, daily self-reported drug use data were collected via Time-line Follow Back (TLFB) at baseline to assess the 30-day baseline measure of substance use and for 90-day periods during follow-up prior to the 3, 6 and 12 month follow-up visits. Patterns of daily drug use (self-reported drug use percent on a given day) using line plots over the one-year period were investigated to describe short-term temporal variations over 7 day periods to describe impact of day of the week, as well as temporal variations over longer periods of time.
Results found a reduction in self-reported drug use days over the one-year period. For cocaine, baseline self-reported drug use reduced from 12% for the 30 days prior to baseline to 8% for the 90 days preceding the Month 3 visit, 6.4% for the 90 days preceding the Month 6 visit, and 5.4% for the 90 days preceding the Month 12 visit. Although there was higher self-reported use for cannabis and any drug, similar trends were observed over the one-year period. For the weekly temporal patterns, self-reported drug use percent was always higher on Friday and Saturday (Any drug = 46%-47%, Cannabis = 30%-31% and Cocaine = 9.1%-9.5%) compared with other days of the week (Any drug = 40%, Cannabis = 25%-26% and Cocaine = 6%-6.4%). Moreover, the weekly self-reported drug use pattern was similar throughout the assessment period for a given visit.
Conclusions: This study helps understand the pattern of the self-reported drug use in patients presenting in an emergency department. Overall, the percent of drug use days continues to decrease over time, suggesting attending a follow-up visit as part of the research study may have impacted self-reported drug use. Higher drug use on Fridays and Saturdays shows weekend effect on the self-reported drug use.
Related protocols: CTN-0047