No Cover Image

E-Thesis 11 views 2 downloads

Overdose, personality correlates and treatment utilization in opioid use disorder / Matthew Jones

Swansea University Author: Matthew Jones

  • Jones_Matthew_PhD_Thesis_Final_Cronfa.pdf

    PDF | E-Thesis – open access

    Copyright: The Author, Matthew Jones, 2024. Released under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial (CC-BY-NC) License. Third party content is excluded for use under the license terms.

    Download (5.63MB)

DOI (Published version): 10.23889/SUthesis.66936

Abstract

Opioid use disorder (OUD) and fatal opioid overdose are significant public health problems. As part of this PhD, I have used mixed methods to investigate multiple aspects of OUD. The investigations described in this thesis include a literature review of personality traits associated with OUD; routin...

Full description

Published: Swansea, Wales, UK 2024
Institution: Swansea University
Degree level: Doctoral
Degree name: Ph.D
Supervisor: Watkins, Alan ; Guirguis, Amira ; Bradshaw, Ceri ; John, Ann
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa66936
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Abstract: Opioid use disorder (OUD) and fatal opioid overdose are significant public health problems. As part of this PhD, I have used mixed methods to investigate multiple aspects of OUD. The investigations described in this thesis include a literature review of personality traits associated with OUD; routine linked-data analysis to identify the sociodemographic and service use characteristics of high-risk opioid users; an interview study to identify factors which facilitate help seeking for OUD; and a literature review and survey study to identify obstacles to adherence for treatment for OUD. The findings from this program of study suggest that there is an enduring personality trait configuration associated with OUD; that high-risk opioid users use health services often but infrequently use substance use treatment services; that help seeking is a values-based behaviour based on rejection of the addiction lifestyle; and that barriers to treatment adherence include comorbid mental health and substance use problems but that more needs to be done to understand obstacles to treatment adherence in this population. It is hoped that the findings of the studies reported in this thesis will be used to inform and develop further studies to help improve outcomes for people with opioid use disorder.
Keywords: Opioids, addictions, narcotics, survey, routine data, observational research
College: Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences