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Heroin Addiction and Related Clinical Problems: 2021, 23, N6 (pages: 5 - 11)

Involuntary Commitment for Opioid Use Disorders: Is There Any Predictor of Recommitments?

Ak S., and Arikan R.

Summary: Background: Involuntary commitment has been one of the interventions utilized by many states in the USA. We analysed regularly collected demographic, clinical and diagnostic data during each commitment in aggregated form to find out whether our recommitted patients shared certain predictors compared with patients who were not recommitted to the Women's Recovery from Addictions Programme (WRAP). This is the first known study investigating the predictors of involuntary recommitments in Opioid Use Disorders (OUDs). Methods: Commitments from 2/9/2016 to 7/25/2017 were screened (N=395). Patients with a primary diagnosis of OUDs were admitted to the study (N=190). Patients' age, race, educational level, number of substances used, presence of co-occurring psychotic disorders, duration of initial commitment, number of commitments (if any), time to first recommitment, Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) status upon discharge, and Socrates Scale Total Points were all obtained. Results: Out of the 190 patients with a primary diagnosis of OUDs, 45 (23.7%) were recommitted to WRAP at least once by the end of calendar year 2019. In the OUDs group (N=190), White/Non-Hispanics' rate of recommitment was approximately half the rate for Other Races (p <0.05). Regression analysis showed that the only predictor of recommitment(s) was race. When the race distribution of the total OUD patient group was compared with the recommitted patient group, the Hispanic subgroup among recommitters was over-represented (10.5% vs. 17.8%, respectively). Conclusions: The increased recommitment rate of the Hispanic subgroup may be related to a substantial increase in the death rate of Hispanics starting in 2015, shortly after the emergence of fentanyl.