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Abstract
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Background and purpose: Patients with drug use disorder (DUD) during the COVID-19 pandemic may have been more likely to experience anxiety, depression and insomnia, which can potentially lead to suicidal behavior. This study investigated the effectiveness of psychological interventions in preventing suicidal events among patients with DUD during 2019-2020.
METHODS: The five-item Brief Symptom Rating Scale (BSRS-5) was used to monitor psychological distress, and it was calculated according to baseline variables. The exposure group was participants who received BSRS-5 assessment during their follow-up period. The other patients were the non-exposure group. The relative risk (RR) of developing DUD was the ratio of the incidence in the BSRS-5 exposed group to the incidence in the non-exposed group. The Chi-square test was used to compare differences among the DUD patients. As part of this study, a one-year follow-up intervention was conducted to assess the effectiveness of psychological intervention.
RESULTS: This study included a total of 3,187 participants in 2019 and 3,308 participants in 2020 with their records linked to suicidal attempts. Patients assessed with BSRS-5 had a lower risk of suicidal attempts (RR, 0.48; 95% confidence intervals [CI], 0.22-1.07) during the period under study. The prevalence rate of suicidal attempts was 0.68% in 2019 and 0.27% in 2020. The average age of the participants was 48.3 ± 7.6 years in 2019 and 48.2 ± 7.9 years in 2020. Most patients were male (87.7% in 2019 and 88.1% in 2020). At one-year follow-up, intervention reduced the risk of psychiatric morbidity by 4.5% and one-week suicidal ideation (score > 1) by 0.9%.
CONCLUSION: Patients with DUD undergoing BSRS-5 to measure psychological distress had a reduced risk of suicidal attempts during both prior to and during theCOVID-19 pandemic. Additional studies are needed to confirm this conclusion.
Language: zh |