Journal of psychoactive drugs
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J Psychoactive Drugs · Sep 2007
An exploratory study of OxyContin use among individuals with substance use disorders.
This study surveyed 422 individuals being treated in a substance abuse treatment program that offers various levels of care in order to learn about OxyContin use among this population. Focus areas included exposure and use of OxyContin, how this medication was obtained, reasons for initial use, and whether users of OxyContin were drug naive or experienced users of opiate or non-opiate drugs. Whether OxyContin users who previously had never used opiates would report migrating to heroin was also explored. ⋯ While most users of OxyContin had a history of past opiate use, a small percentage had not, and of this later group, 73% migrated to using heroin. The majority of individuals who obtained OxyContin from a physician had a history of recreational or problematic opiate or non-opiate drug use. Finally, over time, 90% had stopped using this drug, although other drug use continued.