Mayte López-Atanes, Moritz Rosenkranz, Leire Erkoreka, Maria Recio-Barbero, Melav Bari, Philipp Hiller, Simone Penka, Jutta Lindert, Marcus Martens, Ingo Schäfer
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Refugees seem to be at enhanced risk for substance use disorders. At the same time, they have less access to services and their health needs remain poorly understood. This study aims to evaluate the specific needs of refugees as compared to German-born individuals seeking help for substance use disorders.
Methods: We conducted an observational case-control study using all treatment episodes in outpatient addiction facilities in three German federal states during the year 2020. A total of 719 refugee clients were matched to 713 German-born individuals using propensity score matching. We compared potential needs related to features of substance use as well as different psychosocial areas.
Results: The final sample of refugees was composed of n = 384 (26.8%) cases from Afghanistan, n = 214 (14.9%) from Syria and n = 121 (8.4%) from Iraq. Clients consulted mostly due to cannabis use (44.8%) or opioid use (20.1%). Intravenous use of drugs and needle sharing was significantly lower in refugees (p < 0.05). A higher proportion of refugees than Germans lived in provisional housing, were unemployed or in charge of minor children (p < 0.05). Mental and physical comorbidities were significantly higher in refugees (p < 0.05). They were also more likely to have been victims of violence and less likely to present violent behaviors.
Conclusion: Refugees with substance use disorders differ regarding a spectrum of psychosocial issues from German-born individuals. This highlights the need to link addiction treatment with other parts of the health care and psychosocial support systems to provide adequate care for this group.
期刊介绍：
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology is intended to provide a medium for the prompt publication of scientific contributions concerned with all aspects of the epidemiology of psychiatric disorders - social, biological and genetic.
In addition, the journal has a particular focus on the effects of social conditions upon behaviour and the relationship between psychiatric disorders and the social environment. Contributions may be of a clinical nature provided they relate to social issues, or they may deal with specialised investigations in the fields of social psychology, sociology, anthropology, epidemiology, health service research, health economies or public mental health. We will publish papers on cross-cultural and trans-cultural themes. We do not publish case studies or small case series. While we will publish studies of reliability and validity of new instruments of interest to our readership, we will not publish articles reporting on the performance of established instruments in translation.
Both original work and review articles may be submitted.
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