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Heroin Addiction and Related Clinical Problems: 2024, 26, 49

The estimated and actual prevalence of dementia among heroin addicts in opioid agonist treatment and comparison with general population, In Slovenia

Mercedes Lovrecic, Icro Maremmani, Manuel Glauco Carbone, and Barbara Lovrecic

Digital Object Identifier:
https://doi.org/10.62401/2531-4122-2024-49

Summary: Background: Due to the ageing of the population in the future, an increasing challenge regarding dementia among heroin addicts in treatment is expected. The aim was to compare the prevalence and characteristics of dementia in outpatient opioid agonist treatment (AOT) with the general population. Methods. We calculated the expected number of dementias among the population of Slovenia, the city of Izola and heroin addicts in AOT, then standardised the prevalence rate of dementia by age and gender in all three populations, calculated and compared characteristics between groups. Results. The estimated number of people with dementia for 2021 for Slovenia was 36,861 (25,424 females, 11,437 males), representing 1.75% of Slovenian population; for Izola, it was 333 (234 females, 99 males) and represented 2.7 % of the population of Izola. The standardised prevalence rate of dementia by age (30+ years) and gender in 2021 for Slovenia was 1.6 % for males, 3.4 % for females, the ratio female to male was 2.2:1, for Izola was 1.7 % for males, 3.8% for females, the ratio female to male was 2.4:1. In both cases dementia in females was twice as high as that of males, was increasing more rapidly with age, cases before 65 years were rare. For AOT subjects, the estimated number of dementias was 0. Actual cases of dementia in AOT males aged 30-59 years were 22 times higher than those expected (2 vs 0.09, respectively). At the same time, the standardised prevalence rate was 4.5%, 22.5 times higher than in the general population of Izola and Slovenia. Dementia in AOT was more frequent in males and before 60 years. Conclusions. This is the first attempt to estimate the number of dementias among OAOT and to calculate the standardised prevalence rate of dementia. Treatment tailored to heroin addicts with dementia should meet individual needs.

Keywords: Dementia; prevalence rate; heroin addicts; outpatient opioid agonist treatment