Journal of substance abuse treatment
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J Subst Abuse Treat · Jul 2013
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyGender differences in a clinical trial for prescription opioid dependence.
Although gender differences in substance use disorders have been identified, few studies have examined gender differences in prescription drug dependence. The aim of this study was to examine gender differences in clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes in a large clinical trial for prescription opioid dependence. Despite no pre-treatment differences in opioid dependence severity, women reported significantly greater functional impairment, greater psychiatric severity, and higher likelihood of using opioids to cope with negative affect and pain than men. ⋯ Men reported significantly more alcohol problems than women. There were no significant gender differences in medication dose, treatment retention, or opioid outcomes. Thus, despite the presence of pre-treatment gender differences in this population, once the study treatment was initiated, women and men exhibited similar opioid use outcomes.
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J Subst Abuse Treat · Jul 2013
Diagnostic accuracy of brief PTSD screening instruments in military veterans.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is prevalent but is under-detected and under-treated, despite available efficacious treatments. To improve detection rates, screening instruments such as the PTSD Checklist (PCL) and the Primary Care-PTSD (PC-PTSD) screen have been widely used. However, validation of these screening instruments among patients seeking treatment in substance use disorder (SUD) specialty treatment clinics and general mental health (MH) treatment clinics is limited. ⋯ A computer-assisted structured diagnostic interview (C-DIS-IV) was used to ascertain patient DSM-IV PTSD diagnostic status. Based on the C-DIS-IV, prevalence of PTSD was found to be 36.7 and 52.9% in the SUD and MH samples, respectively. The PCL, PC-PTSD, and five abbreviated versions of the PCL were found to have adequate psychometric properties for screening patients in SUD (AUC ranged from 0.80 to 0.86) and MH (AUC ranged from 0.77 to 0.80) outpatient treatment settings.